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Fantasy horror setting help
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<blockquote data-quote="Nagol" data-source="post: 7892071" data-attributes="member: 23935"><p>There's the game Desolation, which is a high-magic post-apocalyptic game. I thought the premise was OK, but the game engine was meh.</p><p></p><p>For your specific requirements though, you're creating a motivation conflict that isn't necessary. People don't search for horror: horror finds them. The time people encounter horror in new situations is when the situation is expected to be mundane or at worst exceptional, but not particularly unusual... but this time it isn't. If the protagonist is seeking danger, finding it isn't horrific, generally -- it's more survival action-adventure.</p><p></p><p>So what this means don't look for proactive actions from the players. Either insert them into a situation<em> in media res</em> or at a bare minimum frame the initial scene in a way that the fateful decision to enter the realm of terror is already made. This should work fine for a short (1-5) set of sessions or adventures. Your initial scene of waking up in the lab is a good example of this.</p><p></p><p>If you want to get really fancy, depending on GM style, have the solution to a particular scenario force the PCs into the next. This would tend to work reasonably well once, but gets old pretty quick and, again depending on style, runs serous risk of TPK, adventure derailment, and more especially of player exhaustion.</p><p></p><p>As for flesh on a skeleton: it needs a lot more bones first. Decide the style of horror, pick an appropriate antagonist/motivating force, That'll probably give you an 'natural'/appropriate setting.</p><p></p><p>Isolation is a common theme for horror scenarios -- both to place strong limits on player action/resources and to ramp up the helplessness angle.</p><p></p><p>Common isolation tropes</p><p>Mysteriously brought to a sealed environment -- initial motivation investigation/escape</p><p>Castaway/shipwreck survivors -- initial motivation exploration / basic survival</p><p>Imprisioned -- initial motivation escape</p><p>Investigating a remote locale -- initial motivation exploration / investigation (typically more 'professional' characters)</p></blockquote><p></p>
[QUOTE="Nagol, post: 7892071, member: 23935"] There's the game Desolation, which is a high-magic post-apocalyptic game. I thought the premise was OK, but the game engine was meh. For your specific requirements though, you're creating a motivation conflict that isn't necessary. People don't search for horror: horror finds them. The time people encounter horror in new situations is when the situation is expected to be mundane or at worst exceptional, but not particularly unusual... but this time it isn't. If the protagonist is seeking danger, finding it isn't horrific, generally -- it's more survival action-adventure. So what this means don't look for proactive actions from the players. Either insert them into a situation[I] in media res[/I] or at a bare minimum frame the initial scene in a way that the fateful decision to enter the realm of terror is already made. This should work fine for a short (1-5) set of sessions or adventures. Your initial scene of waking up in the lab is a good example of this. If you want to get really fancy, depending on GM style, have the solution to a particular scenario force the PCs into the next. This would tend to work reasonably well once, but gets old pretty quick and, again depending on style, runs serous risk of TPK, adventure derailment, and more especially of player exhaustion. As for flesh on a skeleton: it needs a lot more bones first. Decide the style of horror, pick an appropriate antagonist/motivating force, That'll probably give you an 'natural'/appropriate setting. Isolation is a common theme for horror scenarios -- both to place strong limits on player action/resources and to ramp up the helplessness angle. Common isolation tropes Mysteriously brought to a sealed environment -- initial motivation investigation/escape Castaway/shipwreck survivors -- initial motivation exploration / basic survival Imprisioned -- initial motivation escape Investigating a remote locale -- initial motivation exploration / investigation (typically more 'professional' characters) [/QUOTE]
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