The Swing Spider Asylum, Podreczniki RPG, The Swing
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The Swing: Spider Asylum
Copyright & Credits
93 Games Studio
I will be honest with you; 93 Games Studio
started out as one man and the guinea pigs
that would playtest for him. In 2001 I started
with an idea to toy with making a game. I
wanted a side project to keep my mind off of
work and to help with a friend who was
supposed to move in with me and my family.
He never moved in, but I kept working on the
game, a little here and a little there.
After a year of working on it, I realized
that I might have something. I started
working overtime to get something into
playtest and found a group (Regimental
Quarters) willing to try it out. They helped to
flesh out the system and boost my
confidence. At GenCon and Origins in 2003 I
met James (RPGNow.com), and made plans
to enter the PDF RPG market. I also
discovered print on demand technology
which allowed me to enter the print RPG
business without mortgaging my home.
The Swing: Spider Asylum
Copyright
© 2005 by 93 Games Studio
Author:
Monte Lin
Illustrations:
Gavin Hargest
© 2005 by 93 Games Studio.
All
rights reserved. No part of this manual
may be reproduced without the written
permission of 93 Games Studio, except
for brief excerpts for the purpose of
reviews.
Game aids provided within this
manual and online may be photocopied
for personal use only.
Any mention of companies,
organizations and products in these
pages is not a challenge to the
trademark or copyrights concerned.
In December of 2003 I released The
Swing in both print and PDF formats. Since
then I have released over 25 more products
(mostly small PDF supplements) and have
reached agreements with RPGNOW,
DriveThruRPG, Arima.it, Digital Book Booth,
and Lulu to sell my products. I have also
hired 4 freelance writers, worked with UKG
Publishing to help produce maps for some of
our games and have freelanced with White
Wolf, Ronin Arts and Expeditious Retreat
Press.
www.93gamesstudio.com
smokewolf@93gamesstudio
715 Williams Ave
Raceland, Kentucky 41169
93 Games Studio is committed to
bringing the real world into the gaming world.
We have all played fantasy, been there, done
that; now its time to play reality.
If you are interested in joining this
endeavor please email me or check our
website for our submission guidelines and we
can go from there or check out our
submissions page for more information.
The Swing: Spider Asylum requires the use of The
Swing: Reality Guide published by
93 Games Studio.
xxx
The Swing: Spider Asylum
Table of Contents
About Monte Lin
Monte Lin is a freelance writer with a several publication credits; an adventure in Dungeon
magazine issue #105, an article in Dragon magazine issue #323, and another article for
Dragon awaiting approval. Monte also has written a d20 Future time travel supplement under
consideration for Morrigan Press.
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The Swing: Spider Asylum
Chapter 1
Setup
Tradition is a guide and not a jailer.
W. Somerset Maugham
Introduction
“Spider Asylum” is a short adventure for
experienced characters for the Swing role-
playing game. The characters come to the
Spider Penitentiary to explore a possible
spiritual site and discover the Federal prison
overrun not by the inmates, but by crazed
guards and possessed staff.
A Pueblo woman named Ysabel establishes
a Christian hospital in New Mexico. She
names it the House of the Spider in honor of
the Pueblo creation myth.
Sometime, in the 1840s, Joseph Smith, a
freed black slave, travels west to seek his
fortune. Upon discovering the then
abandoned House of the Spider, he reopens
it as a roadside inn and hotel, keeping the
name in honor of Anansi, a West African
spider trickster figure. He eventually marries
a local Indian woman.
The characters quickly learn not only of an
unorthodox experiment, but of a history of
spiritual influence on Spider Penitentiary
itself.
In the late 1880’s, a Paiute Indian named
Wavoka blends traditional mythology with
Christian symbolism and develops an
apocalyptic religious worship known as the
Ghost Dance. The Dance, believed to
provide its practitioners a new connection to
the spiritual world as well as protection from
bullets, ultimately comes to failure at the
Massacre of Wounded Knee in December
29, 1890.
The adventure takes place in the desert of
New Mexico, which has a WILL Rating of 2.
The Penitentiary itself, which discourages a
connection with the spirit, raises the WILL
Rating to 6 or so. However, for the sake of
this adventure, the default WILL Rating is 2.
Background
The Pueblo Revolt begins in 1680 when a
shaman named Popé organizes the Pueblo
Indians in New Mexico against Spanish rule.
After driving them back to Santa Fe, then El
Paso, Popé establishes himself in the
Governor’s Palace and maintains rule until
his death in 1688. The Revolt officially ends
in 1692 when Diego de Vargas leads a band
of men to retake New Mexico. After over a
decade of starvation and constant raids from
the Apache, the Pueblo agree to adopt the
Christian religion and surrender.
A Sioux survivor of the massacre and
practitioner of the Ghost Dance escapes and
takes refuge in the House of the Spider. He
adopts the English name Daniel to disguise
himself. He marries the owner and inherits
the property.
During the Prohibition Era, the new owners
of Spider House, Shylock Smith and his wife
Maria, turn the hotel into a speakeasy,
serving wines from local New Mexican
vineyards as well as hard liquors. Spider
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The Swing: Spider Asylum
House prospers and expands into its current
eight-wing structure.
He also gives them the work phone of
Warden Anton Gaoler, the administrator of
the prison.
After the economic collapse of the
Depression and rationing of World War II, the
federal government purchases the Spider
House and converts it into a penitentiary in
the 1950s. As the decades pass, Spider
Penitentiary remains a tenth the size of other
New Mexican prisons. It quickly develops a
reputation as a dumping ground for trouble
inmates and reject staff.
If the PCs use the work phone number to call
the Warden, Gaoler says the following:
“You’re the inspectors? Thanks for calling.
We’ve been having some staffing problems
lately and I’m wondering if we can postpone
your inspection for about a week. I know its
short notice and all, but we’re really
understaffed right now and we don’t have the
resources and time to help you with your
work. It would make things much more
convenient if you rescheduled.”
A week before the PCs arrive, Doctor
Frederick Comus cures an inmate, William
“Hamlet” Sheer of his violent tendencies as
well as mental retardation. He petitions to
Warden Gaoler to apply the treatment to the
rest of the inmates but Gaoler shouts down
his request.
Warden Gaoler pushes the PCs to change
their plans. He never threatens the PCs, and
eventually gives in if need be. However, the
character who calls Gaoler will need to
succeed on a Sensory Attribute check
against a Difficulty of 20 (Extended) to hear
the strain in Gaoler’s voice, as if he was
under immense stress.
The day before the PCs arrive, Doctor
Comus unleashes the machine and removes
all the violence and the madness from the
inmates, but summons the Trickster spider
guarding Spider Penitentiary. It takes its
power from the generator and the spiritual
pattern created through the electrical system.
The character’s contact, if asked, suggests
that the characters venture to the
Penitentiary anyway, just to be sure.
Prologue
A magickally-aware contact of the PCs asks
them to check out a federal penitentiary in
the New Mexico as a favor to him. He offers
either a solution to a current quest, owes
them a big favor in the future, or pays them a
sum of $4000. He suspects that the federal
prison is a mystic site and wants the PCs to
ascertain its nature and manifestation.
Luckily, he knows the administrator of this
Federal prison and can get the characters in
under the guise of making the prison a
historical landmark.
The characters arrive at the Albuquerque
International Sunport Airport on a bright, dry
day. They find a rental car of their choosing
awaiting them at the airport with a map,
directions, and identification as members of a
New Mexico Historical Society. The Spider
Penitentiary is an hour southwest of
Albuquerque by car across New Mexican
desert near Highway 60.
When they arrive, an empty guard station by
the electrified fence greets them. Luckily, the
fence is wide open.
He provides airplane and rental car
transportation for the characters, but leaves
them to figure out what they need to bring.
The PCs notice a few cars and two large
prison buses in the small parking lot in front
of the building.
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