I am looking at running some short (1-5 session) horror games and I was thinking of setting some or most in the same world, but I haven’t really nailed much down. But I’m trying to think of a fantasy world / situation that would lend itself to horror. And each game, while it might be unconnected, explores and shows what happened on this world.
What I’ve kind of been pondering is a sort of a fantasy post apocalyptic situation. Kind of like Earthdawn, where you have a typical fantasy world until the Far Realms-like dimension breaches reality, and people have went underground, but also here they’ve turned to various dark forces to hold it back, so you have towns/individuals turning to the undead or Hell, etc, just to not be rent asunder.
Unlike most games, the PCs are not heroes, they are not trained combatants. This is not Aliens, where marines with heavy fire power encounter nightmare monsters. Instead the feel I’m going for is Alien, blue collar non combatants with no real means of defense get thrust into terrible situations and must avoid and run from things that attack them to survive. The main thrust of the game is exploring spooky places, seeing creepy things, and trying to survive it/solve the situation narratively (bury the ghost on holy ground, etc). Sort of like 1e adventures, but without fighting or emphasis on traps
Which makes writing adventures kind of tough because the characters need motivation to go forth, to put them in the situations in the first place, when they are woefully unequipped. Why they aren’t staying on their relative “safe haven”, etc.
One adventure I’m thinking of is the PCs wake up with no memory inside an underground lab. So the plot is just escape the lab and figure the mystery of who they are. I’m thinking they wed test subjects, some group trying to create bodies to jump into, or experiments to resist what was coming, until the lab was overtaken.
Another maybe the underground haven collapses from an earthquake, and they are forced to venture into the unknown to find a new place to live. Or their haven is running out of a crucial resource, which means looking for more.
Anyways, just looking for ideas/flesh for this skeleton
What I’ve kind of been pondering is a sort of a fantasy post apocalyptic situation. Kind of like Earthdawn, where you have a typical fantasy world until the Far Realms-like dimension breaches reality, and people have went underground, but also here they’ve turned to various dark forces to hold it back, so you have towns/individuals turning to the undead or Hell, etc, just to not be rent asunder.
Unlike most games, the PCs are not heroes, they are not trained combatants. This is not Aliens, where marines with heavy fire power encounter nightmare monsters. Instead the feel I’m going for is Alien, blue collar non combatants with no real means of defense get thrust into terrible situations and must avoid and run from things that attack them to survive. The main thrust of the game is exploring spooky places, seeing creepy things, and trying to survive it/solve the situation narratively (bury the ghost on holy ground, etc). Sort of like 1e adventures, but without fighting or emphasis on traps
Which makes writing adventures kind of tough because the characters need motivation to go forth, to put them in the situations in the first place, when they are woefully unequipped. Why they aren’t staying on their relative “safe haven”, etc.
One adventure I’m thinking of is the PCs wake up with no memory inside an underground lab. So the plot is just escape the lab and figure the mystery of who they are. I’m thinking they wed test subjects, some group trying to create bodies to jump into, or experiments to resist what was coming, until the lab was overtaken.
Another maybe the underground haven collapses from an earthquake, and they are forced to venture into the unknown to find a new place to live. Or their haven is running out of a crucial resource, which means looking for more.
Anyways, just looking for ideas/flesh for this skeleton