Looking for insparation for modern-horror BRP

[Dyvim Matt]

Hi,

I am planning on starting a BRP campaign in the next few months. I got the pdf for the BRP book but will wait till I get a physical copy to start it (I just can't play using my computer.)

I want to run a modern horror campaign, but I want to avoid making it too similar to Call of Cthulhu or the World of Darkness. I really like those two settings but I'm getting tired of WoD (played in it for over 12 years...) and frankly, my brother runs CoC way better than I do, so I won't touch his "turf", so to speak.

My game would definitely include the Sanity rules, limited access to Sorcery and Psychic Abilities (to simulate the supernatural aspects of the setting), undead creatures (of course) and other creatures relevant to the horror genre. Everything supernatural would be concealed from the majority of people.

Any ideas you would like to share with me? Setting ideas, optional rules and powers I should include, etc. will all be welcome.

Share your thoughts!

[Dredj]

Repeat post, look at below post

Edited December 5, 2008 by Dredj

[Dredj]

Here's some things that might help:

RPGNow.com - UKG Publishing - Splatterpunk/Zombies! - The leading source for indie RPGs

The next 3 items I plan on buying soon:

RPGNow.com - The leading source for indie RPGs

While this is a full-blown rpg, it's percentile-based and can be used with many rules found in BRP. And it's totally about playing modern spatterpunk horror:

RPGNow.com - Postmortem Studios - Blood!

Here's the rules conversion for the above game to RuneQuest:

RPGNow.com - Postmortem Studios - BloodQuest

Adventure seeds:

RPGNow.com - Big Finger Games - BFG Bloody Hooks [bUNDLE]

RPGNow.com - Postmortem Studios - 100 Horror Adventure Seeds

RPGNow.com - Postmortem Studios - 100 Dark Places

RPGNow.com - Tabletop Adventures, LLC - Halls of Horror

I think that should be good for a start :thumb:

[Dredj]

Oh yeah, get Mythic GM Emulator with Mythic Variations:

Mythic Game Master Emulator

Mythic Variations

[Bygoneyrs]

What will be the back story for your player, will they be members of a paranormal research team associated with a local university? The back story for how and why the players are together researching into these mysteries is just as important and can lead the players into many different adventures as well.

Penn

[sdavies2720]

I've run some one-off horror and I've found that it's really hard for me to GM straight-up horror. The stage-setting, reading of the players, and creep factor are (mostly) beyond me on a Friday night.

So, I've taken the low road and gone for the "Ewwww" factor rather then shivers. The last one-off I did led up to the players discovering what was being put in the center of the Twinkies coming out of a new factory in town (that never hired any workers, whose trucks left at odd hours).

I had a box of twinkies in the middle of the table for player treats and when the players realized that the filling was coming from ...pleasuring... a male cthulhu-spawn, there was a definite "Ewww" moment around the table.

I was disappointed that I didn't get anyone to cough out a Twinkie though.

Steve

[Dyvim Matt]

What will be the back story for your player, will they be members of a paranormal research team associated with a local university? The back story for how and why the players are together researching into these mysteries is just as important and can lead the players into many different adventures as well.

Penn

Well, I'm also trying to find inspiration for that as well. I want to avoid the university research team because I find it's too close to a Call of Cthulhu party, and I don't want the players involved in some secret and/or occult organization because it would be too close to a "Mage: the Ascension"-style cabal (I'm running Mage right now.) I'm thinking of either:

A) Having the player characters related to some sort of "weird crime" which they have to resolve for some as yet undefined reason (for instance, their grand-uncle, a secret vampire-hunter, was killed, the players inherited his diary, and now vampires are out to get them); or

More or less trapping them in some "haunted" (for lack of a better term) location, getting out of which involves having to confront the "critter" (for instance, trapped in the "hotel of doom" with a hungry demon out for a snack.)

Keep in mind the examples provided are just that: examples (and cheesy ones on top of that;) ) In both cases, I would probably let the players define their bonds with each other, as long as they form a group. This could allow for anything from military units to rock bands. All I really need is ideas on avoiding the White Wolf or Call of Cthulhu types of horror. WoD is getting too old and too emo for me, and like I said, my brother does CoC/cosmic horror better than me. So, there won't be world-wide vampire sects and Unpronounceable Things From Beyond The Stars (although I am not barring loose variations on those themes entirely.)

Hope it helps.

[DirkD]

I was thinking about a modern horror game, too. I will probably use the "Laura Claxton" books from David Wellington (13 bullets, 99 coffins, and Vampire Zero) as inspiration. The Vampires and Zombies in the books are different enough, so that the players don't know what to expect. All you have to do is set up some guidelines for the creatures and their abilities.

I would probably allow some kind of weak magic like charms and talismans for the humans (preferably stuff that has no visual effect, so that magic can't really be proven). The players could either be inexperienced law-enforcement-officers that are drawn into the gore by pure chance or members of a special FBI-Vampire-hunter squad that is called in when the bodies are piling up.

[Dyvim Matt]

Hey Dredj,

The stuff you linked to looks great! I think it's really similar to what I had in mind (except maybe the zombie stuff, but who knows, zombie infestation is always cool!) Thanks!

To all,

I would also like to know what optional rules you would suggest. Here is a summary of what I have in mind:

-not specifically focused on academia (aka no "Miskatonic University field trip")

-not really focused on Cosmic Horrors (i.e. Outer Gods et al) but mostly on classic horror (undead, devil-worshipping cults, psychotic killers, etc.)

-Not a rip-off of the World of Darkness (vampires will not be part of the International Emo Fan Club, werewolves will not be "ecoterrorists", etc.)

-Charcter survival is not entirely unlikely, as long as the players think with their heads instead of their guns

-Knowing my players, combat should be gritty and realistic.

-Elements of horror will be hidden, but brutal when confronted.

So far, I know I will include the SAN rules, point-based character creation rules taken from Cthulhu Dark Ages (100 points among all eight characteristics, minimum of 8 in INT and SIZ, 3 for the rest) and Fatigue points, and I plan on using a non-Mythos-related version of the Cthulhu Mythos skill, renamed something like "Forbidden Knowledge". However I am wondering about the relevance of Hit Locations (would it increase character durability when I want them to feel threatened?), skills over 100% (would it create super-heroes when I want the characters to be desperate?) and Allegiance points (should there be a Higher Power to turn to or not?)

What do you think? Anything missing from the above? Anything superfluous? Give me your 2 cents!

Edited December 5, 2008 by Dyvim Matt

[Dredj]

Hey Dredj,

The stuff you linked to looks great! I think it's really similar to what I had in mind (except maybe the zombie stuff, but who knows, zombie infestation is always cool!) Thanks!

To all,

I would also like to know what optional rules you would suggest. Here is a summary of what I have in mind:

-not specifically focused on academia (aka no "Miskatonic University field trip")

-not really focused on Cosmic Horrors (i.e. Outer Gods et al) but mostly on classic horror (undead, devil-worshipping cults, psychotic killers, etc.)

-Not a rip-off of the World of Darkness (vampires will not be part of the International Emo Fan Club, werewolves will not be "ecoterrorists", etc.)

-Charcter survival is not entirely unlikely, as long as the players think with their heads instead of their guns

-Knowing my players, combat should be gritty and realistic.

-Elements of horror will be hidden, but brutal when confronted.

So far, I know I will include the SAN rules, point-based character creation rules taken from Cthulhu Dark Ages (100 points among all eight characteristics, minimum of 8 in INT and SIZ, 3 for the rest) and Fatigue points, and I plan on using a non-Mythos-related version of the Cthulhu Mythos skill, renamed something like "Forbidden Knowledge". However I am wondering about the relevance of Hit Locations (would it increase character durability when I want them to feel threatened?), skills over 100% (would it create super-heroes when I want the characters to be desperate?) and Allegiance points (should there be a Higher Power to turn to or not?)

What do you think? Anything missing from the above? Anything superfluous? Give me your 2 cents!

What kind of horror are you wanting to run? Will it be more gothic in tone, or will it be splatterpunk? If you're going more for splatterpunk, I strongly suggest buying the Blood! rpg. It has critical hit charts and stats for stuff you might not think of using as weapons (toilet seats and socks filled with billiard balls) and everything you need to run that kind of horror game. And it can easily be tweaked using BRP rules (the two systems are very similar, despite initial appearances). Oh yeah, it has SAN rules. But you can always swap them out with BRPs--or vice versa. Besides, I have an intuition that what you're really looking for is covered in the Blood! rpg.

However, if you're running something that more resembles campfire stories or Blair Witch ("folkloric horror"), I would recommend taking ideas from this game: RPGNow.com - Clint Krause - Don't Walk in Winter Wood mostly for its unique way of having the players narrate what the characters are doing. I haven't looked at that game for quite some time, but it seemed like it had some very interesting ideas.

Basically, we need to have a good idea of what kind of subgenre(s) of horror your planning to play before we can give you very good ideas. And, since you're doing modern horror (which is mostly splatterpunk and which Blood! covers perfectly), all you need is for the PCs to be a bunch of teenagers out to have a good time but getting caught in something very deadly. And you can create a campaign from that--assuming the PCs are 'responsible' and want to stop the evil for good. Not only is that the set up of many horror movies, but it's perfectly plausible in the real world for getting the PCs together to fight off a bad situation.

Edited December 6, 2008 by Dredj

[Dredj]

As far as the zombie stuff I linked to above, activate an account and then turn on the adult filter so that you can view more of their stuff. Some of the things the company sells is considered too hardcore for the general public. But it's perfect for any kind of post apocalyptic setting--zombies or not!

If you decide you want to play monsters, check out this game: Stellar Games Nightlife It is ridiculous how much White Wolf stole from this game. And the funny thing is: there's no angst to this rpg. White Wolf literally stole all good stuff they have from this rpg...and yet they overlooked a lot of good stuff from this rpg! It's a percentile-based game, and with some (considerable) reworking could be adapted to BRP.

[seneschal]

I'm not a big fan of occultish or bloody fare ... but good, old-fashioned 1930s-1950s B-movie sci-fi stuff is my cup of tea. Inspirations could include:

The Host (bus-sized fish thingy menaces Seoul)

The Creature From the Black Lagoon (Deep Ones sans Dagon)

It Came From Outer Space/Invaders From Mars/Invasion of the Body Snatchers (is it just me, or is little Johnny acting strangely lately?)

Alligator People/The Ape Man/The Monster Maker (maybe it isn't his Lionel trains Doc Feebles is playing with in the garage late at night)

For more inspiration, check out "Matinee Monsters" in the downloads section.

Also, don't forget cartoons: Scooby Doo, Jonny Quest, Disney's Gargoyles, Extreme Ghostbusters, Spirited Away ("Well, gang. It looks like we've got another mystery on our hands.")

Edited December 6, 2008 by seneschal
more ideas

[cjbowser]

There's been a lot of good advice, and as people have been saying, it would be really helpful to know what type of 'horror' you want to do.

If you like more of a catch-all type horror infused with B-Movie fun where the monster hunters have big guns and get their clues from the tabloids, you might want to take a look at Dark Conspiracy. It's been out of print for a while, but cheap copies can usually be found on ebay. I know Marcus Bone, Lee Williams, and others were looking at resurrecting this one, but I don't know if that's still the plan.

I've been toying with creating a setting for 1950s style BRP horror, but haven't fully decided yet.

Edited December 6, 2008 by cjbowser

[seneschal]

The old GURPS Atomic Horror covered a lot of the B-movie themes pretty well.

[Dyvim Matt]

To all,

Honestly, I'm not completely decided on the specific subgenre, and since that campaign will only take place after my Mage: the Ascension campaign (in a couple of months from now) I want to take the time to think about it. Right now I'm thinking about a hodgepodge of splatterpunk, goth (splattergoth? ) and "campfire"/Blair-Witch-style, but the overall concept could change from now until the beiginning.The story features I gave above are the only things I have decided for now.

My problem is mainly that 1) I don't want to invest in yet another game (my girlfriend already thinks I have too many books) and 2) my experience with BRP is not very broad. (I only played Call of Cthulhu, Elric! and MRQ Elric a few times.) What I really would like is a little bit of help in sorting out the optional rules, figuring out their implications, which ones are best suited to a "generic" horror genre: which ones would increase tension on players/characters (which is "good" for my purposes) and which ones would too muich increase character survival or durability (which is "bad".) Then again, maybe I should make up my mind on the subgenre before getting back to you guys. :confused::ohwell:

Thanks for the help, it's been greatly appreciated! You have all been of great help in giving me food for thought for my campaign design. :thumb:

Edited December 6, 2008 by Dyvim Matt

[Dredj]

While you mentioned that you don't want to buy another game, here's a humorous goth rpg and supplement:

RPGNow.com - Postmortem Studios - Bloodsucker: The Angst

RPGNow.com - Postmortem Studios - Bloodsucker: The Juice

[Connallmac]

I would suggest watching a few episodes of Supernatural on the CW. This is a perfect model for a modern horror themed game.

[Dyvim Matt]

While you mentioned that you don't want to buy another game, here's a humorous goth rpg and supplement:

RPGNow.com - Postmortem Studios - Bloodsucker: The Angst

RPGNow.com - Postmortem Studios - Bloodsucker: The Juice

Wow. Just wow. "A Tale-telling game of bitching and self-delusion." It looks like my teenage years, only in RPG format. You know what? My girlfriend won't like you for showing me this*, but I HAVE TO HAVE IT!!!

[Dredj]

While this is getting away from BRP, I was wondering how Bloodsucker: the Angst would go with Houses of the Blooded? I'm wondering if that would make for the ultimate WoD spoof?

Houses of the Blooded - Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

Houses of the Blooded

(Only $5 USD for the pdf) http://www.indiepressrevolution.com/xcart/product.php?productid=16617&cat=0&page=1

Edited December 8, 2008 by Dredj