Idea for a genuinely horrifying horror campaign...

[BookTenTiger]

Start with a Western...

Turns out it's Horror! Zombies and curses!

But it turns out all the characters are in a VR program run by an evil corporation...

Which exists in a Distopian world...

Run by Time Travelers from the future!

A future world being taken over by Werewolves!

Who are... um... space pirates cursed by the moon!

 

[ruemere]

Kult. Or Doctor Who with a variation on a perception filter.

 

[MGibster]

You can get around this bait & switch problem by telling your players. I ran a sword & planets game and gave my players instructions to make Greek characters either on the side of Athens or Sparta and we'll go from there. But please have faith in my because it's going to get weird. I know it spoils the surprise somewhat but it's better than just selling them one campaign and giving them another.

 

[Jd Smith1]

Deadlands is sitting right there, waiting for you, when you are ready..

Leave Deadlands sitting right there. This is always good advice.

Run Tribe 8. It is seriously weird, seriously horrific, supernatural, and unlike Deadlands, not incredibly lame. It has a bit of a Western feel to the setting, which you can increase if you want.

I ran a year-long Tribe 8 campaign a decade ago, and the players still talk about how it seriously creeped them out.

For added horror, you can let the players discover for themselves that it is set in Canada. I know that seriously ratcheted up the horror aspect for my guys.

I'm thinking about running the setting again, using the Zweihander system.

 

[Dannyalcatraz]

The easiest way to run a “surprise genre twist” is to start with some kind of toolbox RPG system. That minimizes the amount of work the player- and you- will need to do as the ground begins to shift under the PCs’ feet.

That also maximizes the flexibility of what you can actually do in the campaign. Starting the campaign off as traditional Western, but with the supernatural world beginning to reassert itself? You can do that! The players are in a Westworld/Dream Park setting when the tech goes kill crazy? Easy! Want the PCs to be amnesiac players trapped in a VR Western RPG? You can do it! Want the PCs to be self-aware videogame sprites who eventually escape from their Western-themed game into a arger digital reality? It’s perfectly possible.

 

[BookTenTiger]

You could also give players a second chance to make characters after the big twist. So if their first character concept no longer fits the campaign, they get to make a new one. You could also do a second Session 0 at that point to gather player ideas and set the new mood.

 

[Umbran]

Run Tribe 8. It is seriously weird, seriously horrific, supernatural, and unlike Deadlands, not incredibly lame.

If, in order to make your game sound cool, you have to tear down something someone else likes... your game isn't actually that cool.

And if you don't have to, but choose to anyway, you aren't exactly positioning yourself as the kind of person to take recommendations from, now are you?

 

[LongTimeLurker]

The bait and switch campaign sometimes really, really irks players.

 

[Jd Smith1]

If, in order to make your game sound cool, you have to tear down something someone else likes... your game isn't actually that cool.

And if you don't have to, but choose to anyway, you aren't exactly positioning yourself as the kind of person to take recommendations from, now are you?

If facts are important, than yes, I am the kind of person to take recommendations from.

Deadlands is cartoonish at best, childish at worst, a decent concept which has been corner-cut into an absurdity. I can go on in considerable detail if desired; the historical flaws alone can fill pages.

 

[Dave Goff]

Huh. I must be odd. I totally don't mind bait and switch.
I mean, as long as it's done well, it's fine with me.
Of course, there would be huge potential for it to be done really badly and become annoying, but I really trust my regular group, so I don't think it would be obnoxious.
For a stranger group game I might be apprehensive.