Let's say you were going to run a horror game; but you couldn't run it in any place/time that a published Horror RPG is set in.
Which time and/or place would you use?
And what type of horror would it be?
Optionally, what rules would you use?
Ice age horror could be interesting. It's already a pretty harsh setting, where you have limited resources and technology as you battle the cold, scavenge, and go on hunts in an attempt to preserve your tribe. But on top of that, you end up facing something dark and malignant, which thinks you're nothing more than a primitive savage. The enemy might be dark spirits, similar to those from the Evil Dead series, with a focus on the dangers of the night and the forest, and creeping possession. Or it could be aliens, who are conducting experiments which might transform your friends and family into quislings, who perform strange rituals and inexplicable sabotage. Friendly or rival tribes might have been entirely transformed into something else, something not entirely human. Rules aren't that important, but something like GURPS Ice Age might be an easy fit.
Quote from: RPGPundit;1048427Let's say you were going to run a horror game; but you couldn't run it in any place/time that a published Horror RPG is set in.
Which time and/or place would you use?
Bulgaria, the first few months of 1876.
QuoteAnd what type of horror would it be?
The personal horror that comes with being one of the actual "people born to do monster-hunting" from Bulgarian Mythology, of course:)!
Please note: wizards count as monsters for the purposes of the genre, as does anyone else that spills too much blood. Yes, even PCs could get there, why do you ask:D?
QuoteOptionally, what rules would you use?
Definitely something d100-based, probably even an adaptation of Maelstrom Gothic, but might as well be Haunts and Horrors 2e, or CoC 7e;)!
I find that a very tough but very interesting question.
But off the top of my head, I'd say a game set in Ireland between in the years 1845 and 1852. Basically, the years of the great famine where millions of Irish had to emigrate. Assuming they made it off the 'coffin ships' of course.
Given the rich Irish mythology, I'd definitely use that. Especially the dark Druidic stuff that included human sacrifice and some very savage rituals to worship these 'old gods'. I would be looking at making a 'folk horror' game.
However, I'd definitely include some conspiratorial stuff as well... Especially from the English gentry that effectively ruled Ireland at that time. Perhaps certain 'rich' decadent families have made pacts with some of the old gods in order to keep their lands rich and fertile as well as to retain power. However, this comes at a price of sacrificing Irish serfs. People have been going missing from the local villages, etc.
Or certain isolated villages must sacrifice their own kin to keep whatever creature that lurks in the dark at bay. So visitors are not particularly welcome (perhaps, something like the original Wicker Man but with actual supernatural elements).
Of course, you could tie a lot of this in with the famine itself - That the land through a certain intelligence is fighting back so-to-speak and killing the populous in droves through crop blight and mass starvation. Maybe it's having an effect on certain lands - driving the people slowly mad (and that's why we love our alcohol to escape the true horror).:D
I'd say the game itself, given the fact that it's folk-horror, would be part investigation by trying to figure out what is behind each story (and survive of course!). Basically the average Joe in the wrong place at the wrong time. Or if you wanted to beef it up a bit, you could use some kind of organization to 'hunt' the creatures and their cultists/witches/Druids (something like Solomon Kane).
Rules wise I'd say some kind of OSR (but a low fantasy variant to keep the characters vulnerable).
Egyptian Apocalypse, set in the time of the pharaohs, the building of the pyramids.
in it, all the Egyptian mythos are true, the gods are real, and the undead are looking to reclaim their souls.
That isn't easy to answer, horror games have covered most of the obvious ones, Dark Ages, Middle Ages, Renaissance, Rome, Old West, Victorian Era, WW1, 1920-30s, WW2, 1950s, the modern era (from at least the 1980s), space...
Nothing comes immediately to mind for the 1960s, maybe a weird cold war kind of thing recruiting / defending against dark secrets. It could also involve hunting down evil set loose intentionally or unintentionally during WW2.
The Spanish and Chinese Civil Wars seem to be open and offer much opportunity.
Quote from: NYTFLYR;1048505Egyptian Apocalypse, set in the time of the pharaohs, the building of the pyramids.
in it, all the Egyptian mythos are true, the gods are real, and the undead are looking to reclaim their souls.
Isn't Zenobia Aegypt (https://www.paulelliottbooks.com/free-rpgs.html) set in roughly the same time period? I'm seriously not sure, and I admit I haven't read it in a while;).
The Baltics around 1900.
It's the "non published" thing that is a killer for me. I'd be most interested in something from 1650 (Pirates) or 1880 (Wild West) or 1920 (Gangsters) or any time up through the 1980's or so. Any of those time periods have some mix of technology (flintlocks or better) without those pesky cell phones. :)
I don't actually know if these have been done before, but I have two settings in mind: both involve Lovecraftian horror, but one is in a kind of Bronze Age setting (http://daegames.blogspot.com/2017/01/frankenfourth-eldritch-world.html), while the other is a wild west thing (doing a playtest game next Tuesday). Both would be using Dungeons & Delvers: Black Book (http://www.drivethrurpg.com/product/212664/Dungeons--Delvers--Black-Book?src=hottest_filtered).
As cheesy as I thought it was going to be, I actually enjoyed "Abraham Lincoln Vampire Hunter". In it, vampires were actually behind the Southern rebellion, as they fed on the large slave population. I could see a human vs vampire game set during or just before the civil war.
Quote from: finarvyn;1048555It's the "non published" thing that is a killer for me. I'd be most interested in something from 1650 (Pirates) or 1880 (Wild West) or 1920 (Gangsters) or any time up through the 1980's or so. Any of those time periods have some mix of technology (flintlocks or better) without those pesky cell phones. :)
Settings like these also have the advantage of being iconic in themselves, which can serve to make the added horror element all the more unnerving.
Existential Atompunk horror set in the Cold War, in a Crap Saccharine world where we have solved every problem imaginable, except how to deal with one another.
System: Just a bunch of recursive Menzteresque reaction tables.
The 1990s, but in a retro kind of way. Basically the old Delta Green, but through a historical perspective as opposed to it being the 'now' setting of its time.
I'd love to see it set in the modern day as a spin-off of the X-Files.
Something Colin Dunn brought up with 2300AD, the Pentapods do a really good job of being protagonists of a body horror based Lovecraftian campaign. Something similar to that might be worth exploring, especially since transhumanism really does move human existence into some Lovecraftian alien mindset territory.
I would say something along the lines of the recent tv miniseries The Terror.
Holy shit that was a good show.
It occurs to me that a post apocalyptic setting could be a neat starting point (I was watching "The Last Ship" so maybe something after a plague wiped out much of humanity) so that characters are having to struggle to survive anyway ... and then Cthulhu arrives! :D
Quote from: finarvyn;1048959It occurs to me that a post apocalyptic setting could be a neat starting point (I was watching "The Last Ship" so maybe something after a plague wiped out much of humanity) so that characters are having to struggle to survive anyway ... and then Cthulhu arrives! :D
I think most post-apocalyptic games are horror, even without Cthulhu. It just depends on how much you emphasize horror vs. action/adventure.
Quote from: RPGPundit;1048945I would say something along the lines of the recent tv miniseries The Terror.
Holy shit that was a good show.
I enjoyed the show! But have you read the original book by Dan Simmons? It's an absolute masterpiece and probably my favorite horror novel of all time... That, and another arctic horror called Dark Matter by Michele Paver. They took a few liberties with the show but overall it's quite faithful.
Antediluvian Earth. Nephilim, their demonic progenitors, other demons taking physical forms... It would be easy to kitbash any OSR ruleset.
I've long wanted to run a horror game set in the 70s or 80s, where analogues of the slasher villains of those years are built into some kind of crazy pantheon.
Really taking a lot of inspiration from "Jason Goes to Hell" and "The Final Nightmare", and extrapolating them into something really weird.
Quote from: The Exploited.;1049001I enjoyed the show! But have you read the original book by Dan Simmons? It's an absolute masterpiece and probably my favorite horror novel of all time... That, and another arctic horror called Dark Matter by Michele Paver. They took a few liberties with the show but overall it's quite faithful.
I can't say I read it, no. But if the incredible level of historical accuracy they used in the show came from the book I'm sure it's great.
Southwest Ohio circa the early to mid 1970s...
Got reasons.
Also that abandoned subway system beneath Cincinnati's downtown must have been occupied by dark and haunting creatures to cause them to end construction like that...
- Ed C.
Quote from: RPGPundit;1049121I can't say I read it, no. But if the incredible level of historical accuracy they used in the show came from the book I'm sure it's great.
Yeah... Dan Simmons really worked in the history as much as was possible given the nature of the story. Well worth a read! :)
An ancient Chinese city where play starts just as The Mongols break down the gates.
But - it'd probably get way too real too fast and go into places that I wouldn't really want to game. Interesting to consider though.
Quote from: Joey2k;1048578As cheesy as I thought it was going to be, I actually enjoyed "Abraham Lincoln Vampire Hunter". In it, vampires were actually behind the Southern rebellion, as they fed on the large slave population. I could see a human vs vampire game set during or just before the civil war.
I really enjoyed the book, there was far more thought into tying it to real historical events and providing "what really happened" than I expected. The movie was fun and I enjoyed it, but it has a completely different tone from the book. The book was basically an alt-history (with vampires) the movie more action hero.
Quote from: RPGPundit;1048945I would say something along the lines of the recent tv miniseries The Terror.
Holy shit that was a good show.
I haven't seen the mini-series, but I'm familiar with the historical event and the basic premise of the book / mini-series. It seems kind of limited to make a whole game around, but it would make a great horror campaign.
Quote from: Toadmaster;1049365I really enjoyed the book, there was far more thought into tying it to real historical events and providing "what really happened" than I expected. The movie was fun and I enjoyed it, but it has a completely different tone from the book. The book was basically an alt-history (with vampires) the movie more action hero.
I haven't seen the mini-series, but I'm familiar with the historical event and the basic premise of the book / mini-series. It seems kind of limited to make a whole game around, but it would make a great horror campaign.
Well, it could be a long slow campaign where the bulk of it would be historical naval survival in hostile climate; interspersed with moments of tension and supernatural horror.
I kinda want to run a Conan and Cthulhu game. Mighty warriors facing off against rubbery monsters. Call upon new upstart gods like Zeus or Marduk to fight these ancient ones. Maybe set it in the backdrop of pre-sinking Atlantis, make the PCs partly responsible for the destruction of civilization as they know it.
I think that the Enlightenment Period, say the 18th century, could be really interesting for a horror setting. The outlandish styles and debauchery really lend itself to vampires, though we also having early science which could give us all sorts of interesting investigative scenarios, forbidden science (Frankenstein stuff), and the like. I also also easily imagine 18th century scholars unearthing ancient tombs or deciphering decaying scrolls to unleash forgotten evils upon the world. I see a lot of horror potential during this time and relatively few (I can't think of one) settings for it.
Quote from: ShieldWife;1050123I think that the Enlightenment Period, say the 18th century, could be really interesting for a horror setting. The outlandish styles and debauchery really lend itself to vampires, though we also having early science which could give us all sorts of interesting investigative scenarios, forbidden science (Frankenstein stuff), and the like. I also also easily imagine 18th century scholars unearthing ancient tombs or deciphering decaying scrolls to unleash forgotten evils upon the world. I see a lot of horror potential during this time and relatively few (I can't think of one) settings for it.
"A Ghastly Affair" is an OSR RPG that does that well.
Quote from: Joey2k;1048578As cheesy as I thought it was going to be, I actually enjoyed "Abraham Lincoln Vampire Hunter". In it, vampires were actually behind the Southern rebellion, as they fed on the large slave population. I could see a human vs vampire game set during or just before the civil war.
It's minis and not strictly an RPG (though it really should be both, there is a ton of potential), but check out Dracula's America from Osprey.
Quote from: S'mon;1050254"A Ghastly Affair" is an OSR RPG that does that well.
I'm not familiar with it?
Quote from: RPGPundit;1050540I'm not familiar with it?
Sorry I am on phone, but google is your friend :)
It is quite a big game with the Highdark Hall setting copiously detailed. It has a True Innocent class for virginal heroines.
Here - https://engineoforacles.wordpress.com/2015/02/11/ghastly-affair-the-gothic-game-of-romantic-horror/
Quote from: S'mon;1050636Here - https://engineoforacles.wordpress.com/2015/02/11/ghastly-affair-the-gothic-game-of-romantic-horror/
Sounds interesting! I like my Victorian Horror so I must check it out.
Incidentally, I tried to respond to your PM mate, but it said that your inbox was full.
Quote from: The Exploited.;1050643Incidentally, I tried to respond to your PM mate, but it said that your inbox was full.
Should be ok now.
Quote from: S'mon;1050594Sorry I am on phone, but google is your friend :)
It is quite a big game with the Highdark Hall setting copiously detailed. It has a True Innocent class for virginal heroines.
Well, what I really meant by that, is "does it 'do well' in the sense that it has been very popular/high-selling and somehow I just didn't hear about it, or in the sense that you think it does a good job in spite of being obscure?"