Pumpkin Town

Welcome to Pumpkin Town another funny little game from gargoyle13

Towering over the center of Pumpkin Town is the smoke-stack of Uncle Hieronymous's Yum-Yum Factory. Ominous, like a word left unspoken, this pumpkin-topped symbol of one town's struggle betrays the heart and soul of a tiny town's inner life, death, and unlife. You see the Pumpkinus Magnificatum at the top? Been there since I don't know when. We're mighty proud of that- the Pumpkintown monument, you might say. It descends slowly, ever-so-slowly as the calendar approaches October 31st. When the Pumpkinus Magnificatum touches the base of the pole, gateways open up and nightmare wagons are hitched up to go to the other place. Trick or Treat Day -- 10,000 ghosts- and all the residents of Pumpkin Town who can manage it make the trip- big-bag little-baggedly crossing to the other side. Its an evening's entertainment to be sure, but also it is the only thing that keeps this town going. You watch. You just wait and see. October'll be here soon.

A Physical Description of the Pumpkin Town Realm

First- like the poem says: Pumpkin Town is exactly six miles by six miles. Think of it as a cube.. there is a sizable underground portion of Pumpkin Town called the 'Creepy Catacombs' and the Sugar Mines are a sprawling network of tunnels and warrens. At the very bottom of Pumpkin Town is Pumpkin Town Hell- a place very much like a cartoony version of hell, full of sulphur pits, burning lava, miniature volcanoes.. crazy rock formations. Its too hot to live there for most residents. Characters that 'die' or are 'killed' in Pumpkin Town discorporate and reform here in Hell, and they must then make the arduous journey back up through the Creepy Catacombs to an area underneath the Graveyard. At that point the character must dig her way out of her own grave from below. There is no other way to get back into Pumpkin Town from Hell. Sometimes people get lost down there and just wander around for months. Nobody really likes to live there. Everyone pretty much lives in town.

Okay so we got that far. Pumpkin is small cube-shaped realm supported on the top of a very tall pole- Six by six by six. I am not so much describing locations here as I am explaining that the first thing you should know about Pumpkin Town is that its a fairly small place (the town itself only takes up a little over 1 mile square in the center of the map. Isolated. Like most small towns, everyone knows everyone else.. got it? Ok. Heres the other part about the cube aspects of Pumpkin Town: You can fall off.

For a lot of creatures this isnt an issue. Some can fly- Ghosts can simply drift back and forth. Some of Pumpkin Towns residents have access to other means of getting back on top.. the bad thing is: you just keep falling. Only on October 31st when the Bone Ladder appears can you make it to the bottom of the spindle and walk the earth.

Moral of the Story: Players: Dont Fall Off. GMs: Use the 'Edge' as a story element.

Subtangent number 3:Characters that fall off of the Edge are never killed. They simply keep falling until October 31st, at which point they land in someone's neighborhood and go trick or treating. The Edge isnt a character killer. Its like.. I dunno. The danger is that the fallen will be out of play for up to a year. Unless he or she can fly or ghost theres no rescue for a falling character. He falls out of sight within a few moments. This is much better than using 'death' in a game as a story element, especially a game in which many characters are technically already dead.

Now-- the Bone Ladder is a two-way ladder. Just like in the poem, you occaisionally have visitors from below who can fantasize their way into Pumpkin Town on Halloween Night. The other part of the bargain is, every year on Halloween Night, the residents of pumpkin town head down the Bone Ladder to earth to go trick-or-treating.

The Ever-Law of Too Much Rationalization makes my Head Spin

I used to be a member of the Torg mailing list. On that mailing list a popular and extremely dull pastime is to try and make planar travel somehow scientifically make sense. It works out to endless noodling and pointless drivel from people who confess they don't even play the game anymore anyway.. But its their list, or at least they've been there longer*. Don't even try that with Pumpkin Town. Pumpkin Town isnt about something we mere mortals can conceive. I'm not really sure how it works myself and I'm the one who wrote it.

Its a weird little realm. Throw out all of your ideas about 'prime material planes' and 'the Umbra' and Torg like 'cosms' and 'Horizon Realms'. and all of the old RPG ideas we've grown up with. Pumpkin Town is simultaneously allegorical and real. It doesnt get an explanation. At least not a good one. If anyone insists on an explanation just make something up. Your guess is as good as mine. Make sure you change everything the next time you explain it to a different person though, I love doing that.

Twilight and Night

In the simplest terms, there is no day or daylight in pumpkin town. There is Twilight and there is Night. Night starts at 9 PM and ends at 4:59 AM. Twilight lasts from 5 PM (the PM is not a typo) to 8:59 PM.

This means that the hours of 5 AM to 4:59 PM are.. gone. They dont exist. If you look at a clock you'd see all 12 numbers on the face.. but for some reason there simply is no dawn- no 5 AM, no endless afternoons, no lazy summer mornings. Twilight and Night, thats all you need.

Furthermore there are two shifts in Pumpkin Town: The Night Shift and the Twilight Shift (of course). The Night shift is when the darker, more violent moods of Pumpkin Town are more apparent. The Twilight Shift is when most businesses are open and the people of Pumpkin Town are out and about, socializing. The rulers of Pumpkin Town follow these shifts as well. During the 8 hours of Night Shift the ruler is Queen Knuckles, a cruel yet mysterious ruler. During the 4 hours of the Twilight Shift the rulership is shared between the relatively kindly Princess Cake-Mix and Uncle Hieronymous. Different natural forces are in effect as well: actions and reactions are more likely to take a deadly or violent turn during the Night Shift.. and Night Folk are wilder, more unrestrained. They are inclined to Trick rather than Treat. Is this starting to make sense yet? In general the GM should allow for violent, mischievous or cruel actions to get a bonus (+1 at least) during the Night shift. During the Twilight Shift these type of actions are penalized (at least -1). Also the laws of Pumpkin Town are selectively enforced. Something illegal at Twilight may be acceptable to Queen Knuckles.. and vice-versa. In general the main Twilight Shift no-no is anything which seems to hurt the YumYum Factory or threaten candy production.

So now we have the Trick vs Treat dichotomy. GM's take note. This is an important story/plot element that should surface in nearly every Pumpkin Town game.

Oh just drop your bags anywhere.. Bim-Bim will get those, won't you dear? Excellent... Welcome to the Mother Night Boarding House. It's been a while since we had a new guest. Are those glass vials yours? You have a lovely collection of reanimated organs. I must say, I haven't seen any that nice since the Carnival came to town. Have a peppermint. First one's always free. Do be careful of the carnivorous plants in the garden while you're here. Will you be working at the Candy Factory or...? Oh..you're a doctor? Well that explains the organs. We can use a doctor around here. Do be careful with that bonesaw, Bim-Bim, the doctor is our guest.