Best System for a Silent Hill-like Horror Game?

[shadow]

I've been thinking of running a horror game like the Silent Hill series of Playstation games, so I've been looking for an appropriate rule system that would support it. The things from the Silent Hill series of games that I would like to emulate are:

• A twisted "Dark World" version of the real world.
• Deformed, grotesque monsters that represent the subconscious fears of the characters.
• Characters are forced to confront their fears and guilts

I'm sure that someone will want to bring up Call of Cthulhu, but I don't think that the system fits the mood of Silent Hill at all. Lovecraftian 'cosmic horror' deals with the "things man was not meant to know", whereas the horror of Silent Hill is much more personal and tailored to the individual characters. Also, characters in Call of Cthulhu take sanity damage every time they see an otherworldly monstrosity, leading to almost inevitable insanity. However, the protagonists in Silent Hill face multiple horrors and aren't necessarily expected to go insane (in fact, given the quality of voice acting in some of the games, the characters seem almost a little stoic!!!) Horror checks might be acceptable, but the slow inevitable slide into insanity is not something that I'm looking for.

Other than Call of Cthulhu, does anyone have any suggestions for a way to emulate the Silent Hill in a tabletop rpg?

 

[innerdude]

I've been thinking of running a horror game like the Silent Hill series of Playstation games, so I've been looking for an appropriate rule system that would support it. The things from the Silent Hill series of games that I would like to emulate are:

• A twisted "Dark World" version of the real world.
• Deformed, grotesque monsters that represent the subconscious fears of the characters.
• Characters are forced to confront their fears and guilts

I'm sure that someone will want to bring up Call of Cthulhu, but I don't think that the system fits the mood of Silent Hill at all. Lovecraftian 'cosmic horror' deals with the "things man was not meant to know", whereas the horror of Silent Hill is much more personal and tailored to the individual characters. Also, characters in Call of Cthulhu take sanity damage every time they see an otherworldly monstrosity, leading to almost inevitable insanity. However, the protagonists in Silent Hill face multiple horrors and aren't necessarily expected to go insane (in fact, given the quality of voice acting in some of the games, the characters seem almost a little stoic!!!) Horror checks might be acceptable, but the slow inevitable slide into insanity is not something that I'm looking for.

Other than Call of Cthulhu, does anyone have any suggestions for a way to emulate the Silent Hill in a tabletop rpg?

I'm not really familiar with the Silent Hill video games, so I don't know exactly what they are. Do they focus more on action in the vein of Resident Evil, or are they more about exploration?

If it's action-based, I think a system like GURPS, if you're interested in doing lots of interesting, individualized "character stories" would work well, though be warned GM-ing GURPS is a herculean task.

If you want a more straight-up action type game that's infinitely easier to run, with the ability to support some of the sanity / horror mechanics without getting too bogged down in it, Savage Worlds plus the Horror Companion would be excellent.

If it's more of an investigation / conspiracy type game, look at Night's Black Agents.

 

[gamerprinter]

I've been thinking of running a horror game like the Silent Hill series of Playstation games, so I've been looking for an appropriate rule system that would support it. The things from the Silent Hill series of games that I would like to emulate are:

• A twisted "Dark World" version of the real world.
• Deformed, grotesque monsters that represent the subconscious fears of the characters.
• Characters are forced to confront their fears and guilts

Personally I don't think the game system is the issue when trying to represent the horror game aspects you seek. All 3 issues, IME, regard the setting and/or adventure only, not the rules.

For example, my published setting, Kaidan the setting of Japanese horror is designed for Pathfinder rules, however magic works differently (some spells don't work at all), death is final, leading to reincarnation and no chance for raise dead/resurrection, healing magic is somewhat inhibited and undead are stronger and more resiliant. Powerful undead rulers represent all parts of government, defended by extremely loyal samurai forces, ninja operatives and monstrous defenders.

In the 3 part mini campaign arc set in Kaidan, the Curse of the Golden Spear, while all 3 are highly rated horror adventures, the 3rd adventure especially, Dark Path, is built around phobias - darkness, claustrophobic conditions, spiders and other creepy crawlies.

Basically you can use any rules set to run your game, adding specific subsystems to serve your particular needs can make your situation doable, but as stated every issue is solved with the setting itself, not the ruleset.

 

[shadow]

I'm not really familiar with the Silent Hill video games, so I don't know exactly what they are. Do they focus more on action in the vein of Resident Evil, or are they more about exploration?

The games feature combat, but the focus is not on action. In many ways they are the antithesis of the Resident Evil games. The characters are mainly 'common people' that don't have much in the way of combat training. Also, the scares come through the creepy atmosphere and sense of foreboding rather than zombies or other monsters.

 

[darjr]

Call of Cthulu with tons of checks for sanity. Or Dredd using the jenga tower, that'll create a sense of foreboding in your players.

 

[Dannyalcatraz]

Run the game with any system you're comfy with, making sure the PCs aren't overly heroic. Familiarity with the system will mean here won't be too many immersion-breaking references to the rulebooks. All the rest comes from how you run it.

 

[innerdude]

The games feature combat, but the focus is not on action. In many ways they are the antithesis of the Resident Evil games. The characters are mainly 'common people' that don't have much in the way of combat training. Also, the scares come through the creepy atmosphere and sense of foreboding rather than zombies or other monsters.

Aaah, okay. Savage Worlds will likely be too action-oriented / pulpy for that kind of a feel, though it does have an excellent Horror Companion add-on book and a Cthulhu source book (Realms of Cthulhu by Reality Blurs). There's lots of "dials" you can twist with Savage Worlds to aim for a certain "feel," but having had a lot of experience with the system, I can definitely say it's not going to emulate what you've described without some tweaking.

I'd look into GURPS, with a low point value for character generation. I'll be honest, I'm not a huge fan of GURPS per se, but it sounds like a really good fit for the style of game you've described. I'm sure HERO would do the trick too, though [MENTION=19675]Dannyalcatraz[/MENTION] is probably the best person to ask about HERO. BRP might work too.

If you want to stay with a d20 system, I'd say 3.5 or Pathfinder E6.

Or just go with the obvious Call of Cthulhu and houserule the parts you don't like.

 

[Dannyalcatraz]

Low-point HERO is perfectly fine, just like low-point GURPS.

But I still think system familiarity is more important.

 

[Prickly]

Maybe take a look at Fear Itself. It uses the Gumshoe system.

http://www.pelgranepress.com/gumshoe/fearitself/

 

[Neonchameleon]

I've been thinking of running a horror game like the Silent Hill series of Playstation games, so I've been looking for an appropriate rule system that would support it. The things from the Silent Hill series of games that I would like to emulate are:

• A twisted "Dark World" version of the real world.
• Deformed, grotesque monsters that represent the subconscious fears of the characters.
• Characters are forced to confront their fears and guilts

OK. A twisted "Dark World" version of the real world can be done by almost any game. So can grotesque monsters. The actual issue is that you need the characters' fears to be mechanically relevant to the game and to be listed. I'm going to make three suggestions in descending order of preference (the most likely one first).

• Fate (probably Fate Core or FAE). The biggest part of your stats are something called Aspects which are freeform descriptors of what your character considers narratively important. The players in this system gain Fate Points from compels - that is having things happen that directly invoke the dark side of their characters. The more I think about it the more Fate Core seems exactly what you want.
• Smallville. No, hear me out. Smallville's a damn good game that's disguised behind a set of cheap publicity shots that function like Clark Kent's glasses. In Smallville your character statistics are your values (default Smallville has Duty, Glory, Justice, Love, Power and Truth) and your relationships, and GMing advice is to "Wedge" - to find issues where the PCs are going to go in opposite directions.
• My Life With Master - a gothic horror game where the characters are involved with their weariness and self loathing. Really good if it's exactly what you want.
• Monsterhearts - this is adolescent coming of age drama where all the PCs are monsters (a werewolf, a vampire, etc.) and their monstrous nature is an allegory of the issues they face. Again, like MLWM possibly not what you want but really worth looking into in case it absolutely nails things. And characters forced to confront their fears and guilts is absolutely SOP for Monsterhearts. Actually it probably belongs above MLWM.