Alright, it's October and in honor of the Halloween season I have decided to begin the concept phase of an idea for an OSR styled game that has been floating around in my head for a few months now. A sandbox-styled horror fantasy game with an emphasis on survival horror titled Into The Darkness.

Into The Darkness is at its base a pseudo-medieval fantasy game, but I intend to make it very modular and produce supplements that support different genres and technology levels, including Renaissance, Old West/Victorian, 20th and 21st Centuries, and Sci-Fi/Futuristic settings, all of them with a survival horror bent to them. There would be rules for different types of horrors and creatures, from typical flora and fauna, to fantasy monsters, all the way to horror standards such as undead, demons, slashers, and aliens.

However, before I get into a bunch of supplements, I want to establish a basic version of the game first. Sort of a "White Box" version of the game based heavily off of OD&D's original boxed set, with some elements taken from AD&D 1E and the various OD&D and Basic D&D supplements. Initially there would be three classes (Fighter, Magic-User, Cleric) and I'm thinking of using an ascending AC and other combat mechanics lifted from later editions of D&D (mainly for the sake of simplicity). The initial atmosphere of this basic set is a sort of crossover-heavy spooky Halloween horror game. Expect some references to Fairy Tales as well.

Future supplementary material I wish to include for a complete game would include more fantasy stuff (such as all the remaining classes found in AD&D 1E), some Japanese-themed classes (Ninja, Samurai, Sohei, etc.), and maybe some Old West character options in the vein of Boot Hill. After the complete version is finished, I will work on supplements for Modern and Sci-Fi/Future horror settings.

But first, I must work on the basic version of Into The Darkness, which shall be titled the Black Boxed Set, at least for now as a working title (I intend to have a black-colored cover when I get it made as a PDF).

Any tips on mechanics would be awesome, and I wouldn't mind having some anime-styled artwork made for the game as well.

1st: I want to buy this. I want the black box.

2nd: As far as mechanical tips, I think you're largely in luck with your choice of D&D as far as horror goes, because it's actually already made to be pretty creepy.

I would be very careful with the inclusion of the basic classes. Fighter and Cleric are clear shoe-ins, but if you want to put in MU's you quickly run the risk of their weird magic making the monsters scared of them. I mean, if Van Helsing could lob around fireballs then the creeping atmosphere of Dracula would have been... Diminished

Maybe do fighter/thief/cleric?

I'm actually writing my Halloween-themed "Castlevania" dungeon for OSR right now, so you might hear from me again as I work on stuff...

I have learned so far that, as far as the "classic" monsters go, you've got a goldmine just from the original monster manual (the whole universal lineup is in there! Wolfman! Dracula! Frankenstien!). You get ghosts, mummies, hags, you get the creature from the black lagoon for god's sake! So from this: don't reinvent the wheel. Grab what's been done as a solid starting point.

Aside from that? Although not a mechanic, remember that, even a standard dungeon crawl is spooky as hell if its presentation is right. Make sure in your writing that you make it clear that running the game will require atmospheric refereeing, and give them some pointers for brining out the creepiness already inherit in the medium. I really doubt you'd want to write a product without having the ability to run a spooky dungeoncrawl, so I bet you're oozing with solid advice

I'm looking forward to this happening. You'll probably hear from me again (you might say I'll be.... haunting... This thread?

Quote from: Azraele;9232771st: I want to buy this. I want the black box.

2nd: As far as mechanical tips, I think you're largely in luck with your choice of D&D as far as horror goes, because it's actually already made to be pretty creepy.

I would be very careful with the inclusion of the basic classes. Fighter and Cleric are clear shoe-ins, but if you want to put in MU's you quickly run the risk of their weird magic making the monsters scared of them. I mean, if Van Helsing could lob around fireballs then the creeping atmosphere of Dracula would have been... Diminished

Maybe do fighter/thief/cleric?

I'm actually writing my Halloween-themed "Castlevania" dungeon for OSR right now, so you might hear from me again as I work on stuff...

I have learned so far that, as far as the "classic" monsters go, you've got a goldmine just from the original monster manual (the whole universal lineup is in there! Wolfman! Dracula! Frankenstien!). You get ghosts, mummies, hags, you get the creature from the black lagoon for god's sake! So from this: don't reinvent the wheel. Grab what's been done as a solid starting point.

Aside from that? Although not a mechanic, remember that, even a standard dungeon crawl is spooky as hell if its presentation is right. Make sure in your writing that you make it clear that running the game will require atmospheric refereeing, and give them some pointers for brining out the creepiness already inherit in the medium. I really doubt you'd want to write a product without having the ability to run a spooky dungeoncrawl, so I bet you're oozing with solid advice

I'm looking forward to this happening. You'll probably hear from me again (you might say I'll be.... haunting... This thread?

Excellent advice, although I intend to keep Magic-Users as a class, though they may be slightly nerfed at lower levels. Mainly because I like Magic-Users. Though I may add the Thief as a core class as well.

The way I see it, Into The Darkness turns your standard dungeon crawl into old-school Resident Evil and makes wilderness adventuring into a gorier, more visceral Blair Witch Project.

I'm thinking of doing away with the alignment system, and possibly implementing a Sanity system similar to Call of Cthulhu or Vampire's Humanity meter. I'm unsure though, because I may feel that would complicate things.

I also would need some technical help as I don't know how to make PDF's and I can't draw stick figures, let alone anime-styled artwork or spooky landscapes. I could write the rough drafts of the mechanics on Microsoft Word and then find someone who can copy the material onto a PDF.

I may even start my own little indie publishing firm for it, depending on how complicated that would be.

Not sure if I should make it freely available or do the extra legal legwork to sell it online for a very low price. I mean, I like the idea of free RPG's, but if people are willing to pay for something like this, why pass up an opportunity to make a little extra money here and there?

Other than flavour text, what makes this work as a horror game?

I am not saying there has to be a mechanic, though it could help.

Conceptually "mook" type monsters would be bad for this game (goblins, kobolds etc). I would think, that players should never feel their character is "safe." Treasure aquistition as a play goal should be anathema to such a game. Along a similar vein, "kill the monster" may often be a poor choice of approaches -- instead escape, imprison/outthink monster, and retrieve object/ person could be central goals. Reducing a monsters HP may symbolises stopping the monster in some fashion, not defeating them.

Mechanically "beating" a monster probably doesn't mean it is dead, rather it can't reach the heroes, or it withdraws due to a "holy aura" or being stabbed in the eye etc. But it will be back! Escape may also be because the monster has already found a tasty snack. Beating a monster might mean luring it in front of a ballista, or into a pit of acid, and probably doesn't involve stabbing it with a sword.

Perhaps part of the key lies in making sure you shift the focus. Characters are not "adventurers," nor are they heroes. They are a caravan guard, a village priest, and a helpless scholar beset by horrors. Now it turns out that the helpless scholar has some "magical" abilities but only when confronted by the strange horrors he seems to attract.

For the horror to really work, the guard, priest and scholar need to feel like they are normal people. Who try to avoid confronting such horrors. More competent "heroes" are fools and should be shredded when they try and confront a monster directly.

You may want to consider a mechanic that gives a player some sort of bonus (and extra die etc) when they discribe something terrible happening. Like their cousin starting to turn into a wight, and how hard it was to put a blade through their brain. Such a thing could be a memory, or something occurring in the present. It's easier to escape a troll if it pauses to disembowl your faithful mule, or hell a brash teenager armed with only a stick.

Into the Darkness is a really cool name, but it does sound a little to bold and adventuresome. Something more sinister might be more apt . . .


Just a bunch of random thoughts. Hope they spur on your imagination.

What you might do is look for a game which is already out there, such as SWORDS & WIZARDRY and use it as your core system so that you don't need to reinvent the wheel. Then you can focus on the elements that make your setting most interesting and different from what others have done, whether it be different class options or a different monster list, or whatever.

As to magic-user characters taking over, I think a horror-style game needs to have some magic limitation so you could mandate that all spellcaster classes multi-class with either fighter or wizard such that the spellcaster class can never be more than 50% of the total levels of the character. That allows for decent character growth but limits the powers of the spellcaster. I've done this when I run Middle-earth campaigns and have been pretty happy with the flavor it provides.

Just my two coppers.