I know at least some of you here are interested in the idea of Gothic Fantasy as a mode of LotFP-style "Weird Fantasy."  To further an element of genre emulation, I've worked up this little table of "dark secrets" that plague the characters.  Protagonists in Gothic fiction tend to have some horrible, repressed truth lurking in their past that threatens to reveal itself; the revelation is usually apocalyptic on a personal scale or at least exposes them to danger.  

To add to the Gothic atmosphere of my games I have each player roll once on the following table to see what dark secret lurks in their character's past.  This isn't a table that generates anything of mechanical heft; rather, it's designed to add something that can inconveniently arise in play.  Also, while I've only ever used this in D&D-type games, I see no reason why you couldn't easily convert it to, say, Warhammer FRP or Call of Cthulhu.

Furthermore, I've put in where in the literature these ideas came from, both so you can see how I use the influence of Gothic literature in my games and in case you want to do some additional reading to find your own inspiration.

Dark Secret Table

Roll d20
1 Fratricide/Matricide – You have killed one or both of your parents.  If this secret is ever revealed, you can expect to be shunned by polite society.  Also, there may be a vengeful brother, sister, or constabulary on your trail.  Inspiration: Anonymous, "The Parricide Punished"; Shirley Jackson, We Have Always Lived in the Castle
2 Inhuman – Somewhere in your lineage is a bloodline not of human origin.  You have an ancestor who may have sexually consorted with a demon, a vampire, or a deep one.  You bear some visible (though concealable) sign of your inhuman heritage.  If your secret is revealed you might be hunted down as a monster.  Inspiration: Vernon Lee, "Dionea"; Arthur Machen, "The Great God Pan"
3 Plunderer – At some point in the past you stole an item or treasure of great worth. However, absconding with your ill-gotten gains proved difficult so you were forced to hide your prize.  If your connection to the item's theft is discovered you can expect to be hunter by the law and quite possibly executed for your crime.  Inspiration: William Godwin, Caleb Williams
4 Blasphemer – You once belonged to a strict faith, but some imp of the perverse goaded you into violating the tenants of your religion in a spectacular way.  Perhaps your defiled a holy altar or defaced a rare sacred scripture.  If your secret is revealed you might be hunted down by the faithful and burned as a heretic.  Inspiration: Matthew Lewis, The Monk
5 Grave Defiler – At some point in the past you worked as a resurrectionist; you dug up and sold fresh corpses to medical schools for their anatomical lessons.  If your secret is discovered you can expect the families connected to the bodies you procured to exact vigilante justice against you.  Inspiration: Mary Shelley, Frankenstein
6 Changeling – You are not human; the family that assumes you are of their blood had their infant child switched by the capricious fey for a changeling baby.  You show the marks of your inhuman heritage, such as slightly pointed ears, red hair, and an aversion to cold iron.  If your secret is discovered your own "family" will confront you and demand the return of their natural-born babe.  Inspiration: Elizabeth Gaskell, "The Doom of the Griffiths"
7 Haunted – You murdered someone in the hear of passion; now their ghost haunts you still.  Your secret is mostly safe, but those with psychic sensitivity or occult knowledge might be able to see the ghost that constantly pesters you.  If they reveal your crime you will be hunted down by the law.  Inspiration: Horace Walpole, The Castle of Otranto; Clara Reeve, The Old English Baron
8 Debauched – You are addicted to sensual pleasure.  In fact, you have leads other, younger folk down the heady path of the hedonist.  If your role in such degeneracy is discovered, the families of the people you have corrupted will seek you out and demand satisfaction.  Inspiration: Leopold von Sacher-Masoch, Venus in Furs; J.-K. Huysmans, A Rebours
9 Consorter with Demons – As a child you were taught the ways of summoning demons from their Hellish homes.  While you have the ability to conjure forth devils through magical rituals, this power gives you no tangible benefits.  However, if you are ever discovered to have this power it is likely that you will be burned at the stake as witch.
Inspiration: M. R. James, "Casting the Runes"
10 Drug Fiend – You are a drug addict.  Perhaps you favor the sweet oblivion provided by Eastern opium or perhaps you cannot resist drinking yourself into a stupor; in any case, the result is the same: you have lost your family's fortune to your vice and subsequently run away from them in shame.  If your secret is ever revealed your family will confront you and demand recompense.  Inspiration: Thomas De Quincey, Confessions of an English Opium-Eater; Oscar Wilde, The Picture of Dorian Gray
11 Failed Exorcist – 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.  Inspiration: William Peter Blatty, The Exorcist
12 Gambling Debt – You are addicted to gambling and have racked-up an impressive debt in one of the lowest sort of gaming houses.  Your debt is now so far past due that there is no hope of squaring it except through the most magnificent of sums; the criminals to whom you owe the debt have contracted assassins to kill you as an example to others.  If your secret is exposed your life will be in grave danger and no one from the gambling world will associate with you.  Inspiration: Emily Brontë, Wuthering Heights
13 Diseased – You are the inheritor of a terrible disease passed down through your family. The disease represents a great sin perpetrated by an ancestor that you are doomed to repeat; the disease has a few tell-tale signs and the fear of physical degeneration constantly sets your nerves on end.  If your disease (or its familial cause) is discovered, you will be shunned by all in polite society and disreputable doctors may send their agents after you to retrieve a "specimen."  Inspiration: Edgar Allan Poe, "The Fall of the House of Usher"; Henrik Ibsen, Ghosts; Robert Louis Stevenson, "Olalla"
14 Abandoner – The pressures of respectable family life were too much; you abandoned your spouse and children, leaving them to fend for themselves.  If your secret is discovered you will be hunted down by detectives hired by your family to ascertain your whereabouts and bring you to justice.  Inspiration: Ann Radcliffe, The Italian; Charlotte Brontë, Jane Eyre
15 Fraudulent Spiritualist – You once worked as a spiritualist who could supposedly contact the spirits of the dearly departed—for a price.  Of course, you were nothing but a fraud. If your secret is revealed you will be stalked by the grieving families that you once deceived.  Inspiration: Clive Barker, "The Book of Blood"; Sarah Waters, Affinity
16 Blackmailer – You once blackmailed a prominent member of society.  Unfortunately, they have retrieved whatever evidence they once held against you and now wish to exact a painful revenge against you.  Should your secret come out you will have to fear being discovered by both the law and your former victim.  Inspiration: Arthur Conan Doyle, "A Scandal in Bohemia"
17 Family Cult – You belong to a family that is deeply involved in a pagan or demonic cult. While you may or may not belong to the family faith, if your connection to this cult is discovered you will be hounded by the religious and perhaps condemned as a witch.  Inspiration: H. P. Lovecraft, "The Dunwich Horror"
18 Sadist – You are addicted to inflicting pain on others.  In fact, when you were once abusing a young servant you went too far and killed your unfortunate plaything.  If your secret is discovered you will be called to answer for your crime by the law and perhaps pursued by the servant's friends and family.  Inspiration: Marquis de Sade, Justine; Alejandra Pizarnik, "The Bloody Countess"
19 Prostitute – In the past you have worked the streets and back alleys to earn your daily bread.  If your secret is ever found out you will be shunned by polite society and you may be sought out by any prominent past clients who wish to make sure that you can never reveal your involvement with them.
Inspiration: Alfred Hitchcock, Marnie; George Bernard Shaw, Mrs. Warren's Profession
20 Accursed – You are the unfortunate inheritor of a family curse and the knowledge that you are the last of your family line.  If your connection to your accursed family(or the reason why your family is accursed) is ever discovered you will run the risk of being shunned by all; furthermore, you must always be vigilant not to fulfill the terms of the familial doom or risk cutting your life short.  Inspiration: Horace Walpole, The Castle of Otranto; Elizabeth Gaskell, "The Doom of the Griffiths"; Nathaniel Hawthorne, The House of the Seven Gables

Nice and useful.

Very cool. Thanks for sharing it with us!

Thanks guys.  Since this was well-received, I've gone ahead and written ten more entries.  Either make the above a d30 table or make it three tables (roll a d6 to see which table you roll a d10 on).

More Gothicry:
1 Institutionalized – At one point in the past you had a complete mental breakdown.  The reasons for your breakdown are known only to you, but if word of your mental instability should become common knowledge, no one will ever be able to trust you again.  Inspiration: Charlotte Perkins Stetson, "The Yellow Wall-paper"

2 Shipwreck Survivor – You were the only survivor of a terrible shipwreck, and only you know that the wreck was caused by supernatural means.  In fact, you struck an abominable deal with the cause of the ship's destruction that allowed you to survive.  If your secret were to be revealed you would be reviled by all god-fearing folk and possibly pursued by the families of the people who perished aboard ship.  Inspiration: Herman Melville, Moby Dick; H. P. Lovecraft, "Dagon"

3 Voices in Your Head – Since childhood you have always heard voices in your head that urge you to do cruel, inhuman things.  Sometimes you listen to the voices.  If knowledge of the voices you hear were to become known, you would likely be locked away in an asylum for the incurably insane.  Inspiration: Shirley Jackson, The Haunting of Hill House; Henry James, Turn of the Screw; Charles Brockden Brown, Wieland

4 Expedition Survivor – You were the sole survivor of an expedition into the wild, unmapped places of the earth.  Unfortunately, circumstances during the expedition forced you to indulge in the most heinous of acts in order to survive: you cannibalized your fellow explorers.  Sometimes you still hunger for the taste of human flesh.  If your crime were to be exposed you would be shunned by all as a savage and hunted down by the families and friends of those you consumed.  Inspiration: Kelly Link, "Survivor's Ball, or, The Donner Party"

5 Silent Witness – You once witness a serial murderer in the midst of dispatching a young woman to an early grave, but were too cowardly to intervene or inform the authorities.  Her screams still echo in your mind.  If your secret were to be discovered you would certainly be confronted by the angry friends and family of the murdered girl.  Inspiration: Clive Barker, "The Midnight Meat Train"

6 Scientific Meddler – You once considered yourself a scientist working to further man's rational dominion, but your studies brought you down the path of meddling in areas of knowledge not fit for mankind.  Perhaps you became obsessed with animating dead matter; perhaps your experimented with splicing animals together into unholy new forms.  If your secret were discovered you would be disowned by the scientific community and denounced by the world as a usurper upon god's domain.  Worse yet, you are stalked by some aberrant creation that escaped your lab.  Inspiration: Mary Shelley, Frankenstein; H. G. Wells, The Island of Doctor Moreau

7 Spy for the Inquisition – You were once a willing spy for the Inquisition, turning in anyone suspected of witchcraft and heresy.  However, you also turned in a rival who you knew was innocent.  You are haunted by the knowledge that they were tortured upon your word.  Should word get out about your underhanded dealings you might find yourself in the clutches of the Inquisition.  You might also be pursued by the person you falsely accused.  Inspiration: Isaac Crookenden, "The Vindictive Monk or the Fatal Ring"; Edgar Allan Poe, "The Pit and the Pendulum"

8 Arcane Meddler – You once fancied yourself an occultist who would command the greatest of supernatural mysteries.  However, you performed a ritual far too powerful for you to complete or control.  You are now haunted by minor manifestations of infernal presences.  If your secret should be discovered you would be burned at the stake as a sorcerer.  Inspiration: Charles Maturin, Melmoth the Wanderer; Clive Barker, "The Yattering and Jack"

9 Uncanny Double – Since childhood you have had a doppleganger—there is a person who looks exactly like you that sometimes assumes your identity to commit awful crimes.  If you should ever be linked to the deeds of your strange double, you would risk paying the price for their misdeeds.  Inspiration: Edgar Allan Poe, "William Wilson"; James Hogg, The Confessions and Memoirs of a Justified Sinner; Robert Louis Stevenson, The Strange Case of Dr Jekyll and Mr Hyde

10 Catacombs Disturber – You were once party to an expedition that violated the sanctity of an ancient resting place for the dead.  The catacombs that you explored (and looted, in the name of archeology) were cursed: now your nights are haunted by horrific dreams and your days by the creeping dread that something has followed you back from those far-away lands.  If your secret ever became public you would be shunned as little more than a tomb robber.  Inspiration: Bram Stoker, The Jewel of Seven Stars; H. Rider Haggard, She

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By which mean - cool stuff man. Mind if I steal/use those in my Tragic Advice stuff? Could be a great reference.

Good stuff here!

Especially this one:

Quote from: misterguignol;5152994 Blasphemer – You once belonged to a strict faith, but some imp of the perverse goaded you into violating the tenants of your religion in a spectacular way.

To avoid this happening to you, make sure your landlord is not of the same religion!

Nice.

Quote from: The_Shadow;515373Good stuff here!

Especially this one:


To avoid this happening to you, make sure your landlord is not of the same religion!

Hah!  Thanks for catching the typo for me...I have a feeling that one would have slipped by no matter how many times I read it.

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By which mean - cool stuff man. Mind if I steal/use those in my Tragic Advice stuff? Could be a great reference.

Actually, I might keep this one back for myself; it looks like I'm putting together a "Gothic Fantasy" supplement for LotFP.

But I think that if you want to adapt it to "tragedy" you'd need to change much of what is in those entries anyway, as they're pretty genre specific.  I could easily see doing something similar with "tragic flaws," for example.

Quote from: misterguignol;515404Actually, I might keep this one back for myself; it looks like I'm putting together a "Gothic Fantasy" supplement for LotFP.

But I think that if you want to adapt it to "tragedy" you'd need to change much of what is in those entries anyway, as they're pretty genre specific.  I could easily see doing something similar with "tragic flaws," for example.

Fair enough .

I know on the latter. It's a good point of reference though.

Very nice table. Looks like a good match for Pundit's Dark Albion LotFP game.

Quote from: The Butcher;515602Very nice table. Looks like a good match for Pundit's Dark Albion LotFP game.

Hmm, I could see that.  I think the post I made about career paths for LotFP would fit well with that too.

Quote from: misterguignol;515611Hmm, I could see that.  I think the post I made about career paths for LotFP would fit well with that too.

Damn, posted on the wrong thread.

I liked this one even better, though. Especially because it's system-neutral (very very usable with a CoC or WoD game).

Quote from: The Butcher;515615Damn, posted on the wrong thread.

I liked this one even better, though. Especially because it's system-neutral (very very usable with a CoC or WoD game).

Hah, no worries!

Yeah, this is definitely a system-neutral bit of background fun.  It looks like I'm putting together a supplement on Gothic Fantasy, and this will definitely be in there.

Very good stuff man.
I'll be swiping this one for my OSR Colonial game.