Cabin in the Woods Part 2

Cabin in the woods is a really fascinating sort of reverse reroll. I so often put secrets in my worlds. Sometimes they're just fun elaborations, not clearly relevant to the main story but a way to fill out the world with wonder and detail. But sometimes they're fundamental and important to the story; my interpretation of what's really going on in the actual movie just out of view but there for my players to discover if they pull the right levers. And in most rerolls they don't really find any of my big secrets, and that feels right to me. If they always found them they would feel cheap, and anyway they will feel forced unless they're truly arrived at organically. But I always have them in mind as the players stumble their way through my landscapes.

But this one is sort of unique because in Cabin the Big Secret very much comes out in the movie itself. And just like in most rerolls they honestly have very little chance of finding it (they came kind of close when they went poking around and found the worker's entrance to the underground facility), but instead of it being just me that's aware that the big secret is there, it's all of you as well. At least all of you who have seen the movie.

I find that kind of fun, the notion that you're getting to see the reroll from my eyes. You know the big secret and you're watching them flail and completely miss the mark. Of course in this case all my players know the big secret as well, although they don't really know how to find their way to it, exactly. Partly because its a different year and a different monster, and partly because they're different characters with a whole different set of dynamics going on.

Anyway, for once I kind of hope they don't find anything. I always prefer the rerolls that go down a different path.