I went down to the Crossroads...
Feb. 3rd, 2006 06:00 pm![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
gridloreThis week's Suppressed Transmission is about Robert Johnson, the Blues great about whom we know less than we know about Shakespeare.
The legend, of course, is that Johnson sold his soul to the Devil at the crossroads of Highways 61 and 49. Seven years later, the Devil collected and Johnson died, leaving behind less than 30 recordings. The article is great, going into all the neat occult possibilities, but it stirred something else in me.
For years I've wanted to run a game based on Friday the 13th: The Series. A group of characters hunting down cursed artifacts/magical tomes for safekeeping.
The item? Robert Johnson's guitar. Play it, and you become a great musician (no matter what your style.. a heavy metal artist would be a wizard with his Stratocaster as long as he rehearsed with that old acoustic before each show.) Of course, all the great artists suffer for their music. The guitar causes misfortune to befall those around the holder even as his skill and fame grows. Oh, the guitar is addictive. Even as friends and family suffer and die, the holder will do anything to keep playing. Until the guitar tires of him (or runs out of victims.) In any event, after seven years the guitar moves on.
It was last known to be in New Orleans in August, 2005...
Even better, what happens when a mild-mannered Juliard student gets ahold of Nicolo Paganini's violin?
The legend, of course, is that Johnson sold his soul to the Devil at the crossroads of Highways 61 and 49. Seven years later, the Devil collected and Johnson died, leaving behind less than 30 recordings. The article is great, going into all the neat occult possibilities, but it stirred something else in me.
For years I've wanted to run a game based on Friday the 13th: The Series. A group of characters hunting down cursed artifacts/magical tomes for safekeeping.
The item? Robert Johnson's guitar. Play it, and you become a great musician (no matter what your style.. a heavy metal artist would be a wizard with his Stratocaster as long as he rehearsed with that old acoustic before each show.) Of course, all the great artists suffer for their music. The guitar causes misfortune to befall those around the holder even as his skill and fame grows. Oh, the guitar is addictive. Even as friends and family suffer and die, the holder will do anything to keep playing. Until the guitar tires of him (or runs out of victims.) In any event, after seven years the guitar moves on.
It was last known to be in New Orleans in August, 2005...
Even better, what happens when a mild-mannered Juliard student gets ahold of Nicolo Paganini's violin?
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