Let me go ahead and warn you now. If you've never played a tabletop role-playing game, you may not be incredibly interested in this. We can fix that. Give me a call. I'll get you playing in no time. It's what's best really. Join us. Or go find something to do while we talk about gaming. Don't worry. I'll give you something tasty soon. Go ahead and scurry off now.
Now that we're alone...
This is the first step in a potentially long walk off the proverbial short pier and into unknown waters. There are things swimming down there. Cold, slimy things with unnatural shapes. Possibly dead things. Waiting to get their hands on us.
I've been telling you that I wanted to write a tabletop role-playing game. Before you stop me: I know. I don't want to do it to become rich and famous. I know that it isn't sitting on my ass all day, shaking the money tree. I know that writing is hard work. Believe me. Why do I want to write an rpg? I want to write an rpg because there is an rpg I want to play that hasn't, to the best of my knowledge, been written yet. I want to write an rpg because I have a game in my head. I know what I want out of a game and I haven't completely found it yet. Sure, there are some games that come close, but nothing that wins the prize. I know there isn't a perfect system or game. I just want to write the game I want to play.
The crazy part is: I want to do a good bit of that process right here. On Geekcentricity. This post is the first in this ongoing series. Expect more of them from time to time as things take shape. Don't worry, my normal inane ramblings will continue. This will be supplementary. Think of it as a carrot, or an easter egg, for those of you that are tabletop gamers. This first installment deals with concept.
The Concept
I'm a sucker for a good scare. I wrote a book report in 2nd grade about The Amityville Horror by Jay Anson. Hoax or not, that book scared the shit out of me. I've been hooked ever since. Unfortunately, I've never found a horror game that gave me the best of what I loved about horror. Call of Cthulhu is close, but too hopeless even for my taste. Also, it's more cosmic in scale than what I am looking for. The most popular horror role-playing games are probably the World of Darkness games published by White Wolf. Their system is one of the best I've played. The individual games however, are concerned with the player characters taking the roles of monsters. Believe me, I know the whole "He who fights monsters" thing. I think Hunter: the Vigil is probably one of the closest concepts I've seen to what I want to do.
So, what is my concept? The term that describes it most closely is borrowed from video games. I want to write a survival horror rpg. Generally, I want it to be set in modern times, but I want it to be flexible enough to accommodate settings from at least the middle ages up to the futuristic (a la Alien or Dead Space). I want the characters to be ordinary people thrown into extraordinary circumstances. The players won't be playing characters who have superpowers or sparkly vampire characters.
I want the characters to be isolated and surrounded by the unknown. In the Silent Hill series of video games (as well as the movie), the main characters always find themselves isolated with few, if any, friends or allies. They are trapped in a small area with no known means of escape. Visibility is limited by a thick fog or mist (also used in Ravenloft and very effectively in Steven King's novella and subsequent movie, The Mist ). They are constantly low on resources. They are surrounded by mystery. Many of the challenges they have to overcome are more than just physical tests. There are many mental challenges as well. To me, this world defines the survival horror genre.
Unfortunately, I need a concept statement that describes the game concisely, preferably in one sentence instead of a 5 paragraph essay. This is the first challenge.
How about this:
The player characters are ordinary people, cut off from the world they know and forced to live off their wits and survival skills in a world where all of their worst nightmares seem to have come to life.
There it is. Let me know what you think. Seriously. I NEED CONSTRUCTIVE FEEDBACK, people. Get to it, my minions. Even if it's not your favorite genre, or even if you're not a gamer (GASP! Congratulations for making it this far), tell me what you think.
The next installment will talk about setting/synopsis. I will attempt to elucidate upon the concept above.
8 comments:
Hey, I've recently been catching up on your Blog (Which turns out I've missed a good few..) and I am in full support of your survival horror-based game!
Be it zombies or what have you, that has always been a campaign-feeling-setting-thing I've always been 100% driven by. If you need any testers like ya said, count me in...
Hey Miller, i read this because tommy endorsed it on Facebook :D but i really do like you idea for a survival based RPG for the tabletop community. You are correct in the statement that there are not really any good ones out but i think there are a few obstacles you will have to conquer in order to make this idea work.
First the main thing that ties all of those great horror stories together is the limited number of people trying to survive. Which is the true fear of man....to be alone. That is going to be very hard to try to capture considering in my experience the best size of a DnD group is around 4 people not including the DM. What i have tried and some of my friends have tried is a branching story line that starts the group together than splits them up and weaves them back together when the times get boring and it feels like the campaign might die. :D just a suggestion.
Plus, this is just me, but im not the biggest fan of the d20 modern system that is out so you might want to play around with that a little bit.
But it is a great idea and when it is ready for testing i would love to try it out!!! my dice are jingling in anticipation!!! good luck.
@Tom - Thanks for reading. I'm glad you're a fan of survival horror. I've been a huge fan of the genre, but there don't seem to be any real survival horror pnp rpg's out there. I've tried to use other systems to create the mood/atmosphere of survival horror, and have come closest with White Wolf's Hunter: The Vigil, but I think pre-existing systems have a built-in feel/style, or at least come with built-in player expectations, even if you lay out exactly what you want to do. It feels like wearing dress shoes to play basketball. You can do it, but it just doesn't feel right.
@ww000kie - Thanks for reading (and thanks again @Tom for spreading the love - everybody needs a little geek in their week)!
I wrote about that fear of isolation in my latest post. Please check it out. I think it IS a key element that needs to be addressed in any type of survival game. As far as video games go, an example of isolation with multiple protagonists (though it stretches the survival horror genre a bit) is Left 4 Dead (and sequel). As long as the players feel their characters are isolated and off-balance, it can work. I've run games for anywhere between one and 15 players at once and I think the ideal balance point for a survival horror game would definitely 5 or fewer players (plus game master).
I've done split parties many times and while it is difficult to make it work, its all about space and timing. In horror, the player should not know much more about what's going on than the character he's playing would know. Player knowledge spoils horror more than any other genre. SO, you need space to spread out. Texting to individual players is a good replacement for note passing and takes very little time. Also, timing the shifts between players/groups is important. I have an element I want to build into my game that I think will address that (more on that later) as well as keeping players in the game and in their characters' heads.
Having run a few D20 Modern games, I'm not convinced that the system works particularly well for survival horror (see the basketball analogy in my previous comment). Also, I have problems with the randomness of using the D20 as the randomizer (ironically). That will definitely be addressed when I get down to the mechanics of the game. Rest assured that it will not be a single-die class/level based system, but will instead be skill/attribute based, while keeping the number of dice rolled at a time manageable. I think mechanics have to be minimally invasive and serve the story in order to keep up the atmosphere of a survival horror game.
So, keep reading. I think you'll be pleasantly surprised by what I'm putting together.
Not bad, Darren. One quibble though: most people who play RPGs do not want to be "normal". It is normalcy that we are trying to temporarily escape from. Also, a "normal" person has about 99.987% of dying during their first real encounter with true horror.
Also, one can hardly remain "normal" after encountering true horror. Even if no supernatural abilities develop, the characters would change.
Still, an interesting concept. Survival-Horror is an interest of mine, as you know, and it has promise.
One of the key elements to horror is the setting. Most people reach for the easy and obvious choice of a creepy old abandoned house or a graveyard. (You get the idea) Change it up a bit. Take the mundane and usual and pervert it. Bear with me here.
It is a beautiful sunny day. The smell of freshley cut grass gentely caresses your nostrils as you stroll across the yard to your mailbox. After opening your front gate you bend down to retrieve the newspaper there. Out of the corner of your eye you notice a small puppy lying in a crumpled heap beside the road. A small, dark pool of blood forming a scarlet halo about his head. No one else seems to be out this morning, odd. You recognize the puppy. Sharon, your neighbor across the street picked him up yesterday. Today is her daughters seventh birthday. Sharon made you promise not to say anything. You head across the street hoping to get to Sharon before she tells Haley that she's getting a puppy. Praying that she hasn't already. Brightly colored balloons greet you at Sharon's front gate. That's right, she said there was going to be a party. The other kids must not be hear yet. It's too quite. That and you hear a lawnmower running in the back yard. As you head around back the sound of the lawnmower grows louder. At first you see a young boy. Standing still, a forgotten icecream cone slowly melting, clutched in one sticky hand. A hammer dangeling limply from the other. You follow his gaze and see more children, their faces blank, gathered in a circle around something on the ground. The sound of the lawnmower intensifies, rising in pitch. Pushing your way past the children and looking over them you see what is on the ground. Susan. She has been pinned to the ground with lawn darts through the hands and feet, her mouth gagged, her eyes wild with fear. Haley, resplendant in her pink birthday dress, has a hold of the lawnmomer. She has tipped it back revealing the whirling blade underneath as she pushes it forward. Haley looks at you and smiles, letting the machine drop. As the rest of the children turn to look at you, the boy with the hammer tugs on your pant leg. "Tag, you're it"
Ok. Not Steven King but you get the idea.
@Cameron - I would disagree that people aren't interested in playing normal characters. I've talked to several accomplished game designers/rpg writers who also disagree. In fact, it seems to be a growing trend. If you haven't read my "Sheppard's Pie" post (and yes, I know it's misspelled), there is a link to Will Hindmarch's latest design diary for his in-development game, Razed. The normalcy of the characters, strikes a stark contrast to the strangeness of their circumstances.
As for survivability, the intent is for the game to reward smart play, improvisation, and problem solving. Creative solutions are rewarded. The traditional rpg, going in with guns blazing, approach WILL get you killed. Bad dice luck should not equal total failure resulting in certain death. Not being aware of your surroundings or charging in without appraising the situation very well could.
Pretty much any survival horror game features an ordinary protagonist faced with extraordinary circumstances and forced to rely on his wits and the environment to survive.
@Snapper - Okay, that is terrifying. Wow! You're one twisted dude. But hey, I already knew that!
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