Upgrade your account to a Community Supporter account and remove most of the site ads.

Reply to thread

Message: <blockquote data-quote="pming" data-source="post: 6833335" data-attributes="member: 45197">Hiya! [MENTION=6785785]hawkeyefan[/MENTION] and [MENTION=6777078]RotGrub[/MENTION], I understand what you are saying. I run a Call of Cthulhu adventure at least once a year (I try, anyway) for my group. They love it to death. So much so that I usually get other players siblings or significant others asking to join. I get how a horror genre RPG needs some initial "buy in" in order to really get the most out of it. However...I don't think that initial "buy in" is really possible for people who know how D&D works 'behind the scenes'. I mean, just think of a 'horror' movie...say, Dawn of the Dead. Now, what if all the initial characters were the characters from Expendables...but with the added bonus of being experienced RPG'ers. ... ... ... ... It would be a completely different movie and there would be almost no tension because nobody would be doing really stupid things...like wander off on their own in a zombie apocalypse because they "heard a noise coming from down the dark hallway lined with mannequins". As I said...everyone needs to "buy in" to the Stupidity Fund.How would a RL adventure run if the PC's:<ul> <li data-xf-list-type="ul"> never, ever divide up into anything less than 3 in a group</li> <li data-xf-list-type="ul"> completely ignore anything that they aren't expecting (such as DM: "you hear a woman crying from somewhere in the fog-shrouded wood...sounds like she's lost or hurt"... Players: "sucks to be her..." ).</li> <li data-xf-list-type="ul"> stocks up on things they need to fight supernatural creatures (wooden stakes, holy water, wolvesbane, iron/silver weapons, salt, etc).</li> <li data-xf-list-type="ul"> are willing to sacrifice their PC to ensure victory for everyone else* ...</li> <li data-xf-list-type="ul"> ...or...are willing to sacrifice the entire town if they feel they can't reasonably win</li> </ul>* in one RL game I played in (actual RL module), another players 8th level barbarian with ridiculous HP's (18 Con and good rolls) "misted" Strahd all by himself because Strahd made the mistake of trying to engage him in hand-to-hand combat at the edge of a pit of acid; barbarian grappled him, jumped into acid; levels dropped, HP's dropped every round, and Strahd ran out of HP's first...POOF!...into a fog cloud he went. Barbarian was smiling to himself as his body finally dissolved in the acid pit. With that kind of player determination and sacrifice..."horror" is reversed. Poor Strahd was terrified of us after that, pretty much hiding and running away as we ransacked his castle.I guess what it boils down to, IME, is that when players feel backed into a corner and with 'no hope of survival' (pretty much a staple for any horror game), they become both unbelievably creative...and equally cold-hearted. I mean, think of a MMO. You are a 40th level whatever, and find you and your party about to get wiped by a 47th level BBEG. Someone yells "RUN!", and everyone disperses. Bad guy wins, but players don't care. They don't care that, story wise, said bad guy is going to kill every NPC in town and bring a new age of darkness to the land. Why? "It's just a game, we'll just ignore him or try again in a few levels".As I said...there needs to be explicit "buy in" from the players to do stupid things and pretend to be "normal folk". The end of Season 2 of Z Nation has flashbacks to the first day of zombies for some of the characters. One woman is a Militia chick. She hears an ambulance crash. Goes outside, sees guy strapped inside. Guy inside starts spitting black-blood-goo and struggling to get at her. She's confused. Goes inside. Zombies start to pour into the room she is in. She shoots one. Then two. Finishes the third. And then states... "Zombies". Another character is an old guy who is a drug-abuse counselor. Hears a commotion in his room after leaving a patient in there. Opens door, sees some guy on top of his male patient on the couch. Says "Oh! Sorry!", closes door. Pauses. Thinks "I didn't know Gary was gay? No...two guys wrestling on a couch? No... Oh great...Zombies!".  Those are RPG'er reactions. Those are reactions players would have. And that is why, IMHO, D&D is a poor fit for a "horror setting campaign". One off? Sure...everyone can buy-into the genre. Long term campaign with PC's the players want to actually play (re: keep alive) for months on end? Not very likely at all, as in "snowballs chance" likely. All IME, of course.^_^Paul L. Ming</blockquote>

Verification