Only two players can make it; perfect time to do a one-shot.  We roll up some new characters, and decide to take our chances with my Dark Secrets table.  In a fluke of fate, both players rolled Failed Spiritualist as the result:

"You once worked as an exorcist; however, you had no particular skill or ability to banish demonic presences. In fact, while most of your cases involved people who were mentally disturbed, your last involved a young woman who slew her family while possessed by a particularly vicious devil—you were powerless to stop her. If your secret is ever found out you will be hounded as a fraud and perhaps confronted by church officials."

This is too good of an opportunity to pass up.  It's decided that the two characters (one fighter, one thief) worked as a team of exorcists, even though both were complete frauds.  Of course, the job these two former charlatans get sent on relates to the family they ripped off and exploited: they are to infiltrate the house where they failed to exorcise a demon from the youngest daughter of the family and retrieve a rare book that the family has stolen from an occult bookshop.

What these two low-lifes don't know is that after the events of the failed exorcism, the family took the attitude of "If you can't beat 'em, join 'em" and began to do the bidding of the demon inhabiting their daughter's body.  They've had their agents steal the grimoire because the demon wants to open a gate to bring the rest of his foul cohort into the world.

Things...went badly.  Botched plans, bad rolls, and chance encounters within the house lead to a moment where one character (the fighter) is suspended above a pit of acidic ooze and is holding on to the thief's hand for dear life...and then he fails his roll to climb back up from the trap he's sprung.

The thief watches in horror as his friend and fellow cheat is dissolved.  Unfortunately, the fighter's death screams bring the family cult running.  Surrounded by a circle of knife wielding demon worshipers, we close the curtains on this sad scene.

Total party kill.  The players loved it.

The next batch of characters are slated to deal with the fall-out of the summoning that could not be prevented in time.  Happy GM's Day!

This has nothing really to do with the mechanic you describe here, but you might want to contact the lynn museum and  historical society (the city I live in). In college I did an internship there and apparently we were one of the spiritualist capitals in the late 1800s. There are lots of cool newpaper articles, journal entries, etc that would make really great handouts in an rpg (one of my jobs as an intern was transcribing the journals of local bored housewives from a hundred years ago). There was even some kind of giant statue erected temporarily in lynn woods to attract spiritual energy (or something to that effect).

Quote from: BedrockBrendan;519217This has nothing really to do with the mechanic you describe here, but you might want to contact the lynn museum and  historical society (the city I live in). In college I did an internship there and apparently we were one of the spiritualist capitals in the late 1800s. There are lots of cool newpaper articles, journal entries, etc that would make really great handouts in an rpg (one of my jobs as an intern was transcribing the journals of local bored housewives from a hundred years ago). There was even some kind of giant statue erected temporarily in lynn woods to attract spiritual energy (or something to that effect).

Is that Lynn, MA?  I think I have an ex girlfriend who lives thereabouts...

I currently live within driving distance of Lilydale, NY which was pretty much ground central for the spiritualist movement of the 19th century.  Amazing stuff.

For anyone that would like to look at some books about spiritualism, my recommendations are Ronald Pearsall's The Table-Rappers: The Victorians and the Occult and Weisberg's Talking to the Dead, which is specially about the Fox sisters.

Quote from: misterguignol;519219Is that Lynn, MA?  I think I have an ex girlfriend who lives thereabouts...

I currently live within driving distance of Lilydale, NY which was pretty much ground central for the spiritualist movement of the 19th century.  Amazing stuff.

Yes, Lynn MA. There was a huge spiritualist community here around the same time as in Lilydale. Was genuinely surprised as it is something most of us locals know nothing about. Christian Science we know about, but we don't generally know much about lynn's connection to the spiritualist movement.

Quote from: BedrockBrendan;519236Yes, Lynn MA. There was a huge spiritualist community here around the same time as in Lilydale. Was genuinely surprised as it is something most of us locals know nothing about. Christian Science we know about, but we don't generally know much about lynn's connection to the spiritualist movement.

I admit I didn't know of it either!  I will have to look into this, thanks for mentioning it!

Reminds me abit of the Brothers Grimm movie aswell which isnt a bad thing(though your opinions of the movie may say otherwise)

Quote from: Broken-Serenity;519242Reminds me abit of the Brothers Grimm movie aswell which isnt a bad thing(though your opinions of the movie may say otherwise)

I haven't seen it, actually!  I meant to at the time, but it slipped off the radar.  Off to check to see if its in my Netflix queue.

Quote from: misterguignol;519245I haven't seen it, actually!  I meant to at the time, but it slipped off the radar.  Off to check to see if its in my Netflix queue.

It's a very good film.

And nice write - up .

Quote from: Rincewind1;519247It's a very good film.

And nice write - up .

Just added it to the never-ending queue!

And thanks!

I admit when it comes to horror, I like the "Mysterious/Haunted Mansion" routine very much. It allows a certain freedom of approach and planning, while limiting later the environment, allowing for creation of the feeling of abandonment and separation, which I believe, is core to horror games.

Quote from: Rincewind1;519258I admit when it comes to horror, I like the "Mysterious/Haunted Mansion" routine very much. It allows a certain freedom of approach and planning, while limiting later the environment, allowing for creation of the feeling of abandonment and separation, which I believe, is core to horror games.

Agreed.  I prefer "terror" (haunting, uncanniness) over "horror" (gore) in fiction, film, and gaming over "horror" as a general rule.  Which is why I sometimes find my style of gaming at odds with the philosophy of the  LotFP line sometimes.

I do like a bit of the red stuff now and again, though.  The death-by-ooze was definitely in the gross-out territory, or at least what I consider to be gross-out territory.

Quote from: misterguignol;519260Agreed.  I prefer "terror" (haunting, uncanniness) over "horror" (gore) in fiction, film, and gaming over "horror" as a general rule.  Which is why I sometimes find my style of gaming at odds with the philosophy of the  LotFP line sometimes.

I do like a bit of the red stuff now and again, though.  The death-by-ooze was definitely in the gross-out territory, or at least what I consider to be gross-out territory.

So  that's the difference, huh? Interesting piece of information.

I am generally of  the Lovecraftian school here - Ooze>Blood.

Quote from: Rincewind1;519264So  that's the difference, huh? Interesting piece of information.

I am generally of  the Lovecraftian school here - Ooze>Blood.

Here's how terror and horror get differentiated in terms of the Gothic:

When one feels terror, one's mind is elevated to a new understanding of the world's terrifying possibilities; possibilities that were once repressed by the rational mind now threaten to undue the psyche's defenses.  As such, terror is generally an inward experience; it is centered on psychological interiority, the ways in which a sense of self is located in relation to the outside world, and the realization of our inconsequential smallness in the face of something unthinkable.

For concrete examples of how terror function in Gothic works, consider the disoriented psychology of Shirley Jackson's The Haunting of Hill House, the obfuscating mysteries and conspiracies of Ann Radcliffe's The Italian, or the film Carnival of Souls.

In many ways, the experience of horror is the opposite of the experience of terror;  feelings of horror are soul-shrinking impressions of disgust or revulsion.  When one feels horror, one's mind contracts and attempts to shut out the horrifying possibilities of what you've just experienced or attempts to repress the horrible implications of what we've just witnessed.  In Gothic literature, objects that inspire horror are generally exterior to the sense of self; they are more visceral than actively psychological.

Where we find examples of horror in literature: Corpses, blood, and gore: when a character encounters a decaying body or other remnant of human life they tend to react with disgust and are often temporarily stunned by the discovery.  The visceral workings of the body are a  reminder that we too are mortal and subject to bodily disintegration .  Bodily transformation: when a character discovers that a villain is physically monstrous, misshapen, grotesque, or inhuman, it challenges their perceptions of embodied subjectivity and frequently causes them to react with revulsion.  The revelation that the villain harbors a bodily secret—that they are a werewolf, possess a horrible deformity, or disturbing wound—cause us to experience horror at the thought that the form that defines human existence is fallible, mutational, or unstable.

I'll be posting about this all week on my blog, btw.

Interesting.

And Carnival of Souls is a very good movie indeed. I was going to say that it was horror imo, but on the other hand - in a certain moment, she begins to seek them out herself.

Quote from: Rincewind1;519274Interesting.

And Carnival of Souls is a very good movie indeed. I was going to say that it was horror imo, but on the other hand - in a certain moment, she begins to seek them out herself.

Yeah, I love that movie.  It's too bad really imaginative movies like that with micro-budgets rarely break out like that one did.