An RPG for Halloween

[PeckishGamer]

My friends and I have developed a bit of a tradition where I will create/run a horror-themed RPG on the weekend of Halloween. Last year (or was it the year before that?), I created a zombie game. It had it's flaws, but it got the job done. This year, I decided that I want to toy with a new idea, and I want to know what you all think about it. After spending some time with Rob Lang's How to Write a Free RPG blog (deepest thanks, Mr. Lang), I have come up with a concept for a horror-themed RPG. I call it Nightmare Fable.

Nightmare Fable is a game where you play a mental patient at an insane asylum. Every time you go to sleep, you instead wake back up in a living nightmare. This world resembles a twisted version of fairy tales like Snow White and Little Red Riding Hood, where the inhabitants are deranged, disturbed or psychopathic. The focus of the game is to survive until you wake up, while collecting and piecing together suppressed memories. Each memory you unlock restores a bit of your sanity. However, your mental conditions will manifest themselves themselves as monsters, and you will have to choose, fight or flight? All the while, an entity called The Puppeteer cackles in the shadows, controlling the nightmare for his own twisted pleasure. The core system is fast-paced and deadly, and whether it is the residents, your own insanity, or even The Puppeteer, danger lurks around every corner.

Opinions? If anyone would like to know more, feel free to ask. Is the idea too played out?

[Chainsaw Aardvark]

An interesting idea, and a powerful one that has inspired several other games. I would certainly not say its played out, but you should be careful of seeming too close to another.

has a very similar concept - people fall through cracks in reality and begin to interact with story archetypes on a deeper level. I don't really care for the JAGs system, but its free so there is no harm in looking at it.

I don't know much about "Don't Rest Your Head" but I seem to recall its also a game about insomniacs obtaining magic and fighting dark aspects of reality. is another strange game about acessing achetypes and subconcious - its a bit like "The Matrix" - but you're in the mind of another person, not a computer.

Several video games to consider are American McGee's Alice, Silent Hill, and Condemned.

Unlike most of these, there seems to be a bit more hope and direction in where to go in your game. The night is survivable, and there are keys to to solving the problem - rather than just being stuck in a world half half "Eraserhead", half "Naked Lunch", and half slasher film. (Cue ghost of Don LaFontaine?) A bit of light at the end of the tunnel is always helpful in keeping people interested - if its too grim and hopeless, why care or try?

Good luck with the project.

[Evil Scientist]

I would ditch the mental asylum thing, that's a bit overdone. Also, I'm not too keen about this depiction of mental illnesses.
Though I'm also guilty of almost creating a game featuring this motive, for last years 24h RPG challenge... - a mash-up of "One Flew Over the Cuckoo's Nest" and the "Alien" franchise, but it did not get furhter than just a handful of basic ideas.

But I can't recall any RPG properly exploiting the fairy tale canon. I'm sure there are quite a few with this theme, but mabye they didn't get popular.

And as Chainsaw "Massacre" Aardvark (just to keep with the Halloween theme) said: a touch of hope for positive outcome is desirable and certainly a novelty - this might be your selling point!

[PeckishGamer]

CA- Thanks for pointing out that JAGS Wonderland was free! I got the PDF and it is interesting to say the least. Haven't even gotten to any of the system yet, due to the first portions of the book being basically pure setting info.

ES- Just to be clear, by "mental illness" I mean things like amnesia, schizophrenia, and psychosis especially. Maybe I should use a different terminology? Mental Illness just seemed to fit. To be absolutely sure, what is it that you're "not too keen about" exactly? The fact that these illnesses translate to monsters in the nightmare realm? I'm not sure why that is an issue, but please, explain so I can understand. I would especially like to know if this somehow offended you, and why, so that I can avoid that in the future.

Now, about dropping the insane asylum bit. It could definitely be done, in fact, I was thinking about having the PCs be residents of the nightmare realm originally. I just felt like it would be creepier to play with how insanity can lead to this horrific place that is actually real (in some sense). If you were to take out the insane asylum aspect, how would you re-shape the concept?

[Evil Scientist]

[PeckishGamer]

What's the point of having a disclaimer if it's so small I can barely read it XD No worries, you didn't come off harsh at all. In fact, that's exactly the kind of feedback I wanted.

I've never played Kult or WoD, and, though I've heard a lot about them, I never knew they had the mental illness = monsters thing. I've never seen Suckerpunch either (a friend of mine saw it and didn't enjoy it). I didn't know that idea was so used. Thanks for pointing that out!

The second part of your reply is a bit more vague, though I think I understand where you're coming from. Basically, you're saying that having mental illness translate into actual monsters is a bit too forward, and that I should take a more subtle approach. Is that correct?

Hmm. Taking this all into account, I'm much more poised to drop the asylum bit entirely. I suppose I could just have the PCs be normal people from the real world. One day, they find a door or portal of some sort that shouldn't be there (drawing inspiration from JAGS Wonderland), and when they go through it, they end up in the nightmare realm.

However, that changes the core concept quite a bit. My "light at the end of the tunnel" no longer fits as well. Hmm... I'll have to mull over this. I'll post what I come up with.

Thanks for the help Evil Scientist!

[PeckishGamer]

I've done some more writing on the setting of Nightmare Fable and I'd like to collect some feedback from all of you. Here's the link to the document:

https://docs.google.com/document/d/19pl ... 95tXs/edit

This document details the four main themes of the game a bit more. Looking for any kind of feedback: what you like, what you don't like, what you'd add, what you'd drop, comments, questions, anything.

[PeckishGamer]

No replies on the last post? I suppose it's time to move away from Setting and into System discussions. I just finished this interesting idea I have for a combat system. It is done almost completely without a randomizer. I want the battle system to be very lethal for the Players... a system where running usually is the best option. I also wanted to try out a resource management system. So, here's the hybrid of those two ideas:

NOTE: The Characters have two stats that will effect battle, Courage and Sanity. They each provide a pool of tokens that can be used in combat. For play testing purposes, Courage will probably be around 20 while Sanity will probably be around 10. When Sanity starts to drop, it will give penalties at certain increments (probably 9, 6, 3 and 0) related to your mental condition. IE. A psychotic character will go into a homicidal rage. Therefore it is within your character's best interest to keep their Sanity high.

NOTE ON DAMAGE: All Player Characters can take one hit before they die. One, that's it. The reason that damage is even used is because the enemies (Residents and Monsters as mentioned in the previous posts) are able to take more than one hit; they will have HP, sometimes a fairly large amount. When I said I wanted combat lethal I meant it!

Without further ado, here's the bare-bones combat system:

At the start of each round, each Player secretly chooses to have their character either Attack, Help, Hinder, or Flee. If a Player chooses to Attack, Help or Hinder, they must also secretly choose one other character to target. Then, each Player secretly chooses a number of Courage tokens out of their pool to “bid” on their action. Everyone then reveals their bids and what action they have chosen.

Helping and Hindering gets resolved first. If you chose to Help a character, that character gets a bonus to their bid equal to half of your bid. If you chose Hinder, they instead get a penalty to their bid equal to half of your bid.

Then, Attacks are resolved in order of highest bid to lowest; ties roll a die, high roll goes first. Compare the attacker’s Courage bid to the defender’s. If the attacker’s is greater than the defender’s, the attacker deals damage equal to the amount of tokens in their bid. If not, the attack does nothing. During comparison, either side may spend Sanity to boost their bid. This can be done ONCE by each Player involved, and the attacker must spend their Sanity first. For each point of Sanity spent, consider your bid boosted by one. NPCs cannot boost their attacks in this way.

Finally, Fleeing is resolved. If you chose to Flee and you’re still alive by this phase, you successfully escape the battle.

If you have no Courage, your character freezes up. They cannot act in combat until they replenish their Courage pool.

At the end of each round, each player discards all Courage tokens they bid that turn.

At the end of the combat, you recover half of the Courage that you lost. If you Fled, you recover no Courage.

----

So. Thoughts, comments, questions? Likes, Dislikes? What you'd add, what you'd drop? Let's hear it!

EDIT: I just realized I could streamline the rules by making it so that at the start of each round, you make a bid including tokens from either of your Courage and Sanity pools (or both). Then the second instance of "bidding" Sanity during attacks is removed.

[misterecho]

Ghostbusters anyone?!

[PeckishGamer]

... I'm sorry, I don't get the reference. I've only seen that movie once, many years ago.