I posted this quick setting on my blog at Integral Mind Games but I wanted to repost it here as well for visibility. 

This micro setting is called Overtime Willworkers and provides some ideas you might use to fill up your Constellations for a Guiding Fate game.

Overtime Willworkers

Old enough for the responsibilities they will need to take, young enough to have only developed some of the cynicism life will demand, the heroes of this story are the cashiers, clerks, and workers of all our most favorite haunted establishments. They just need to make sure these twisted locations don’t slip from their control while their family in the Order are asking ever more favors from them.

Cabin in the Woods by way of Arrested Development!

A Wild History

Wild magic was once a thing of fierce and dangerous temperament. It brought forth beast embodying calamities, caused kingdoms to fall to madness. Against this force of chaos, a band of magicians and willworkers conspired to bring order. The Order. A group dedicated to the dispersal of all Wild magic such that the common folk would no longer be subject to its carious whims.

It was known that gnarls in leylines gave rise to Wellspings. Fonts of Wild magic, whose effects could barely be said to be understood, let alone controlled. So what could be done about them?

Speed to the present. Few Wellsprings exist now. Few even know the existence of Wild magic. The Order has done its work all but too well. Which has brought new problems.

A House Divided

The witches and mages of the Order had grand visions for how they might contain the Wellsprings. Working together with masters of the Masons, the Order designed architectures which would serve as bulwarks against the Wild.

However, the nature of their work demanded secrecy. They needed to prevent the outside world from disrupting their delicate wards whether through mistake or malice. They needed protection from accusations of culpability for manifestations of Wild magic. So they created a face for the world to see. They created the Company.

In the modern era, the Order is of two halves. The Company, a real estate investment firm and the Coven, the secret cabal of magicians working to disperse Wild magic. Once the Coven has found a Wellspring, the Company has acquired it. Their might be a brief period of cajoling, bartering, coercing with the locals but it is the Company’s all the same in the end, even if others are unaware of that.

Managing a Front

With the land in hand, the Company sets to the task of constructing a Front. These mundane places of business permit the Coven to disperse the energies of the Wellspring, usually with the unknowing assistance of its patrons. Places which attract the young are heavily favored, as the young tend to have a purifying effect on the Wellsprings, ensuring its manifestations are more innocuous. Conversely, greedier adults usually prompt darker creations, unconsciously attempting to twist the Wild to their desires.

Thus, the workers of these Fronts tend to be the teenagers and young adults of the Order. These are the children of the Coven and the Company who make sure none of the wax figures in the museum they are in charge of abduct one of the guests. Their age results in them bring baggage to the Wellsprings which does result in manifestations. But this is just a rite of passage they will need to get through if they every want to be part of the upper echelon of the Coven or the Company.

Usually a Front is designed to slowly leech out the power of a Wellspring. More often then not, the Order tries to hurry things along with a Ritual. Other times, all the efforts to make sure that the Front is a nice boring store fail, and the Willworkers have to resort to a Ritual to stave off calamity.

A Ritual places a cap on a Wellspring, dispersing the magic for good, though allowing some of its residual energy to be harnessed, which the Order most certainly does. The nature of the Ritual varies from site to site, but usually causes the energies of the Wellspring to concentrate before hand resulting a dangerous and unpredictable situation. 

Like most things involving the Wellsprings, their energies can be calmed by those pure of heart. As a result, it is often easiest and safest for the young to perform the Ritual. If the Wellspring produced a nebulous octopus cloud which caused anything it touched to come to life, a youngster would much more easily be able to make contact with it and calm it down such that it could move on and disperse.

However, the Order still finds it too dangerous and unpredictable to leave such individuals to their own devices. So, they require that the young adults of the Front to assist these children in their quests to seal the Wellsprings and complete the Ritual. Those at the Front serve as mentors and guides, offering assistance as necessary to allow these Chosen to complete their task. This often includes providing council through whatever distressed mental state they might be in, either as a result of their personal lives or the Wellsprings intervention.

Conversely, the employees of the Front can try to complete the Ritual themselves. While lacking the complete protection of youth, they still maintain some resilience to the Wellsprings corrupting effects (both being twisted by it and twisting it in turn). Those selected to run a Front almost always have family connections to the Order and thus have had the mystic training to accomplish this job. When no Chosen can be found, those at the Order’s Front will be called on to cap an out of control Wellspring and complete the Ritual.

Trouble in the Family

The system of capping Wellsprings has worked well for centuries. Almost too well. There are fewer and fewer places of Wild magic anywhere. With the lessening of the Order’s ability to augment their fortunes with the controlled energies harvested from capping Wellsprings, their resources have dwindled. 

The Company, dealing as it does with the mundane business side, forced to make purchases and investments in bizarre, out of the way, money losing locations has been particularly hit hard. With only those at the top even aware of its true purpose, these faulty investments have damaged their prestige and resulted in no end of strife from those lower in the Company.

Some are saying it is time to cut ties with the Coven. That the Order’s mission has all but been fulfilled and that their is barley any magic left in the world as is. They are called the Separatist. Others see it as an opportunity, a chance for the Company to have a monopoly on all magic. They are referred to as the Monopolists.

Likewise, similar discussions are being held in the Coven. Some seek to slow or halt the practice of capping Wellsprings and preserving what Wild magic is left in the world, with most of the more egregious locations taken care of. Most call them the Preservationist. Others see it as their duty and mission to ensure that all such magic is removed, they will not rest until every Wellspring has been capped. People call them the Purists.

The discussions for the future of the Order are intense and often end up roping our heroes into their arguments. Family member can be pitted against family member as the question of what to do about the dwindling of magic looms over everyone.

And so our heroes labor at their minimum wage jobs, fighting off the suspicions of locals, connecting with youths attracted by the call of the Wellspring, policing the local cyprids, and juggling the politics of the Coven, Company and Order at large!

Mechanics

In terms of Guiding Fate, there do not need to be any major mechanical changes to represent this setting. Wellsprings can server as main villains and drivers of a story. Usually they can be represented as plot agents unless the GM has a specific manifestation of the Wellspring in mind. But keeping it a plot agent allows for it to have various sub agents created by it or associated with it which might not otherwise be intuitive. For instance, a plot agent Wellspring could create an entity of a local group of bullies who cause trouble for the Front.

As a reminder, plot agents can be targeted either by creating an advantage on them and then invoking that created aspect to cause stress or by invoking an aspect to target the plot agent with an attack and then rolling attack and defend as normal. Likewise, the plot agent has to do the same to target other agents.

Players are encouraged to use one of their aspects to create a patron within the Order. They might be a family member or just a mentor. However, they are also encouraged to coordinate with other players so that each mentor is part of one of the different factions (purists, separatists, monopolists, and preservationist). The player does not need to agree with the patron, but allows an avenue for the politics of the Order to come into play.

The number of Fronts the players need to maintain is up to the GM. Starting out it will probably be just one, but if they move up in the ranks, they might be telling other Willworkers what to do at their Fronts. 

Guiding Aspects

• Age Compromises – If you want to make it, you need to play the game. Only the young can afford to indulge in fantasies of right and wrong. In this world, growing older means corruption and selfishness.
• See the Awesome, Be the Awesome – Part of magic of this world is helping others see the magic in themselves and assisting them through their problems. Doing so empowers yourself.
• With Great Responsibility Comes Great Power – As a worker, the players inherit many duties they need to fulfill. But at the same time those duties provide them with avenues to exploit for other interests whether their own or a member of the Order. Will they work in service of the community or the Order?
• Circus of Obligations – There are many aspects competing for the player’s attention. The Order, their family, the Front, the locals, the Wellspring, the Chosen. They can work to keep all these plates spinning, but some might fall.
• Imagination is Power – Those with imagination are the ones who determine what is real or not at a Wellspring. Offer what guidance you can.
• Selfie Moment – Take time to savor things. You will never be this young again!

Location Constellations

• Theater where the horror films occasionally come to life
  • Aspects: Footsteps Just Behind You, Message Carved on the Walls, Mint Condition “The Carver” Movie, Power Surge Cut Off Lights
• Costume shop which can turn people into their costumes
  • Aspects: Mysterious “Free” Coupons, Popular “Dungeon Monsters” Consumes, Big Order for Town Council Costume Gala.
• Restaurant which can turn people into zombies who need to eat more
  • Aspects: Mysterious Ooze in Meals, Sauces Here are Very Popular, Insatiable Customers
• Getaway Camp for Troubled Kids. Most of whom are literally haunted
  • Aspects: Group Counseling Sessions, Teaching Spirits to Let Go, Covert Order Recruitment, Arts and Crafts and Protective Wards, Go Anywhere But Overshadow Rock
• Amusement Park which intensifies emotions
  • Aspects: Everyone’s Now a Thrill Seeker, Courting Danger In and Out of the Park, Undying Affection from the Tunnel of Love, Everything is Funny After the Funhouse
• Cleanbusters who clean up all the strange ectoplasmic goo showing up over the city
  • Aspects: Where is it all Coming From?, We Need this Clean by Five, Everyone at the Office Got Drenched, The Goo is Coming Together, Sewer Has a River of It 
• Music store which can hypnotize people and makes them act out the music
  • Aspects: Everyone Get Out and Dance, Spontaneous Musical Number, Town Mosh Pit

Object Constellations

• Communication of hexes to be placed on rivals by Company to the Coven.
• Memo from Coven leader asking to divert funds from Company project in order to fund own research on how Wellsprings propagate through local wildlife.
• Coven genealogy report on one of its members which shows an undesirable connection.
• Plant whose fruit grants a youthful completion or look young.
• Salary info for Company employees.
• Sonic emitter which makes people happy and oblivious.
• Feathers which if buried will summon a raging storm.
• Bones which will crack to show the words to make the person you are looking at hate or love you.
• Dowsing rod which will show you where someone’s treasure is buried.
• The password to the Company purchase site, showing much of what they have bought for the Front.
• A golden chocolate bar which will cause any adult that sees it to desire it.
• Pen which uses your blood as ink to write a binding contract.
• A privileged communications with the Company lawyer or witch doctor.
• Crystal which will return life to the recently deceased for one hour and then cannot be used after that. Wild magic risk.
• A glyph which makes anyone without magic who sees it believe you have clearance. Left over from a different job.

Plot Constellations

• A humiliating marketing attempt by the Company which has people dress up in mascot costumes handing out fliers and waving signs (sometimes for other companies). This is to blend in with the Wild magic entities which are walking around. You need to lure out the Monsters Guild to deal with them.
• Local business magnet is trying to shut down the Company’s Front at a Wellspring site. Uses local thugs, corrupt officials and underhanded dealings to try to get the land. Works for a demon he is contracted to.
• Someone is putting out a bounty on vampires as well as providing data about their locations. Your Front needs the additional funds to stay afloat. Turns out to be run by the vampire elite targeting lower class vampires to get rid of the riftraft.
• The Front the players are working at is going to be the site of negotiations between the Order and a rival cabal headed by an imprisoned tome which the members read to get their orders. This rival cabal has also has a rival Front competing with the player’s Front. The negotiations are mostly about turf, disputed Wellsprings and what magic use is permitted.
• A parent group attributes the strange goings on in town to the Front. The Front is too strange and needs to be more family friendly. They pressed for mandatory smiles and bright cheerful uniforms. Their other recommendations and fliers can be seen taking hold of the Front as their influence grows. Eventually, the faeries behind it try to use the Wellspring to impose cheer on the entire town.
• A group of bullies finds out how to use the power of the Wellspring and uses it to terrorize the adults. They need to be found and stopped or at least help them deal with the reasons behind their targeting these adults.
• A beach party party by the local kids attracted the attention of some Bacchus spirits. Now whenever the kids are filming the spirits tend to assist them, leading to crazier stunts and challenges which they have so far walked away from. This won’t last forever.
• The players have done well at their Front. To well. Now they are expected to start franchising. They are given another Front they also have to take care of. This will probably mean hiring more mundane staff at both locations. The players will need to juggle the responsibilities of both Fronts.

Persona Constellations

The personas are usually the kids in the area of the Front who will act as local guides for the Willworkers. Each has a “magic” which flavors how they interact with the magic of the Wellspring.

Ralph Burch – Feeling off put by his younger step brother, he fixates on how Might Man doesn’t need a sidekick. Takes his frustrations at the remarriage of this parents off on his younger step brother. Needs to repair the relationship and learn not to fear change. Magic: Comic book he has been putting together.

Fran Hoover – Doesn’t get along well with her classmates whom she thinks are immature and not as sophisticated as her. She wants to grow up and not have to deal with the lack of authority and responsibility which comes with childhood. Magic: she has a bunch of self help and business negotiation books which she thinks tell her everything she needs to know about how to get what she wants. (Straight back, look them in the eye, firm handshake…)

Tyree Snyder – Hypochondriac who thinks things are only getting worse. Uses his phone and additional devices to take his blood pressure and temperature. Has a lot of basic first aid utilities scattered everywhere. Magic: A list of obscure diseases and symptoms which he/she has collected in a notebook.

Rue Garrett – Once under consideration to join a Ritual, ultimately rejected. She now hunts the Order, what she believes is an alien guarding shadow government organization. Her hard boiled detective persona conceals her hurt at the Order’s rejection, which she sees as a piece of the larger pattern of her being ignored and disregard by people. Magic: A collection of gadgets she has put together powered by alien technology.

Antagonist Constellations

Sasha Vasquez – The local busy body, her meticulous tracking of everyone and everything’s movements has let her key in on the fact that not all is as it seems at the Front. She has something she calls a “garden gnome” trapped under a very odd bird bath she picked up at a thrift shop. She consults with the “gnome” to try to figure out what the Front is up to.

Jose Small – Resigned himself to the fact that if he wants to be able to afford a new guitar he will need to get a part time job. Whenever he lays back into his own head thinking about song lyrics, he ends up at the Front. This had lead him to think that he is destined to work there. His constant distraction as he harmonious melodies in his mind causes frustration for his colleges. Worse for the Front, when he is in his musical flow state, he often wonders to places he shouldn’t, and has almost seen a lot more then he should. Only his clueless demeanor has prevented an incident so far but time only knows how long that will last.

Hilton Chambers – Local kleptocratic, Hilton often palms things from the Front. He then tries to pawn them off to other parties. Generally sociable, he still gives a smarmy vibe. His car is his true treasure even if he cannot afford it. His compulsion to steal from the Front might be his own issue or due to some outside influence. Ultimately, his actions put potentially dangerous objects in the hands of people who shouldn’t have them.

Leroy Hartman – An employee of the company which occupied the site before the current Front was put in place. He harbors a grudge against the Company and has try to start several protests. He also happens to know some of the less know entryways into the Front or secret cache locations from before the Company bought the current Front.

Alisha Ballard – A reporter who thinks the Company strong armed the local government into speeding up its acquisition of the Front. She is probably right. She sees the Front as the first step in the Company’s encroachment of the town. She has run several articles about the secrecy of the Front and has gotten other townsfolk to snoop around, curious what is going on.

Character Constellations

Charlotte Newman – Local businesswoman who’s investment in the Front was necessary to win the zoning board’s approval. She wanted to be a silent partner, but other townsfolk have pressed on her to voice their concerns. With this increased attention she is also more concerned about seeing some ROI and soon. Still, she has money in the Front and can be expected to go to bat to protect her investment.

Glenda Moss – Cares and treats some of the cryptids created by the Wellspring. These can be anything from jackalopes to goblins. Her ministrations have helped to greatly increase the local population, which might hamper shutting down the Wellspring. Still her research notes are some of the most extensive of the subject and can be of great value to the Order.

Alvin Holden – A Company screw-up assigned someone unaware of the truth behind the Company to the Front and after becoming aware, he is entirely into it. Everything about the situation is new and interesting to him and he is looking for a chance to rise up the ranks. His enthusiasm outstrips his ability to deal with the situations though.

Kendrick Hodge – Local exterminator who has made it is mission to deal with the local cryptids which have been popping up. He could be a help or hindrance depending both on how competent he is and whether it is truly beneficial to hunt the cryptids.

Lessie Booker – An artist who studied the Wellspring before the Company put its Front on top of it. Her knowledge of its quarks and magic might be useful, but she also has her own plans for the Wellspring.

Jamal Walker – Fell in love with one of the Wild magic manifestations from the Wellspring. Perhaps a spirit or ghost, perhaps a fairy. The bond can help control the Wellspring but they look to maintain the magic not destroy it.

Marlin Stanton – A health inspector, building inspector or fire marshal who has a bad feeling about the Front. They are constantly poking about, which in turn reveals parts of the Front or aspects of the Wellspring which would have otherwise go unnoticed. Spriggan nests, uncovered eldritch sigils or ectoplasmic leaks are uncovered thanks to them. Still Marlin expects the Front to clean up the manifestations they uncover.

Joshua Marks – Company man who had a brush with the law. He needs a place to lie low. Definitely a malign influence on the magic of the Wellspring but he does teach the players a few tricks for getting around the rules of both society and the Order. The length of his stay will depend on if the Order requests you hide him, or if they do not even know he is there.

Moses Cabrera – Teacher who is worried about one of the kids who might potentially be engaged in a Ritual. They might be an overprotective busy body of a kid who knows how to take care of themselves or they might be one of the few people looking out for their interest. Either way, Moses tend to go on and on about their subject of study whether history, geology, science or what have you. An easy way to distract them.

Lydia Mira – Coven worker tasked with inspecting a Front’s operations and magical bindings to make sure everything is in order. She also checks that any equipment need for a potential Ritual is on hand and in working order. She might assist the players with any shortcomings or she might expect them to be self reliant at the story’s needs.

Kathleen Farrell – Company handyman who worked closely with the general contractor when establishing the Front. Only Kathy did it heavily on the cheap. Whether from lack of resources or ability, the poor setup of the Front mean she is constantly on site making adjustments. She will be either showing the players the weird ways things function (you can only enter and exit the freezer backwards or the sinks start spraying ooze) or doing quick fixes of malfunctions (insulating the wires to prevent the poltergeist from flickering them on and off all the time).

Bindings Constellations

• Competing for the same Company scholarship.
• Recent transferes from the collapse of a failed Company shell branch.
• Member of a family cursed by the others family.
• Just started tutelage under a recently upturned but still power member of the Company.
• Were involved in a Ritual which devolved into a Wild magic event.
• Helped an entity of Wild magic escape being caught by the Order.
• Was part of a Company contingent which negotiated with local Wild magic power brokers to gain access to a Wellspring. (Perhaps offering to resettle local fae, or convince the local ghosts and poltergeist this would put them to rest ).
• Participated in a successful Ritual when they were younger and still carry the mark.
• Participated in the infamous Company team building event on a supposed fully cleansed Wellspring site which wasn’t.
• Taught someone outside the Order a bit of magic to help them.
• Had a fight in the past due to one person not being able to fully reveal what they were working on.

Lore Constellations

• Lookarounds – Have their heads on backwards and think everyone else needs to be made this way too. Can only move in the direction they are not facing but move very fast. Tend to move past their targets and then course correct.
• Grin Goblin – A twisted tooth fairy who tries to steal as many teeth as they can. Has an unsettling large smile.
• Cutout kids – Origami people created from a cursed coloring books. If a coloring book is filled out with anger and malice, the cutout kids create a new member from the pages and they try to enact the drawn scene as best they can.
• Wall Knockers – Collect loose nick nacks about where they reside and treat them like treasures. Often have extensive residences in the walls which are much bigger then they should be.
• Suprisers – Leave hints about when their upcoming birthday is and become very upset if no one does anything for them.
• Work Gnomes – Which always have to have more work to do, or they will create work to do. If left unchecked they will do things like adding an upstairs jacuzzi. Or a helipad in the backyard. Or 3 story dog houses.
• When a Wellspring fades some of the creatures it created become their mundane equivalent (Were-wolves go back to humans or just wolves) while some just fade away entirely. Most of those who become mundane without Sight forget all about this fantastic period.
• Every agent at a Front had an emergency alert talisman. Records right before they die. You might need it.
• The Company keeps track of all outsiders involved in a Ritual. Some they approach for favors later in life, some they make sure don’t talk.
• The Company encourages the children of the rich and powerful to become involved in Rituals in order to bind those kids to the Order.
• There is a monster hunter guild being shutdown which the Company is currently headhunting from.
• One of the true powers of younger people is True Seeing. They can look at entities and objects from beyond the Veil and not see them as something mundane.
• The Order’s magic is mostly wards, summonings, bindings and contracts.
• One of the tools used for the ritual is not in working order. Has someone in your group been slacking off on maintenance?
• Someone caught a slight case of lycanthrope and is self medicating to avoid attention from the Order
• Need to start a viral social media campaign to drum up business
• Someone from an agency outside the Order is poking around. Actually, they might be looking to recruit you.