Urban Legends, Warning Stories, & Chain Emails

[RedTonic]

So I was idly browsing http://www.snopes.com, debunking yet another email from my (beloved) grandmother, who is convinced I'm going to be raped for 1. wearing loose clothes, 2. helping lost children, and 3. using public restrooms, when the notion occurred to me that Snopes's trove of miscellany is a real treasure trove of plots.

How many of you use these stories in your games? Do you use them as part of or the entirety of an underlying metaplot, or are they mainly side-items? Do you ever use the basic stories in games set in non-contemporary times?

Personally, I'm a fan of the "helping the old lady" one--has all of the good gory elements of Grimm tales, and integrates fairly easily into most settings (unless it's Logan's Run!).

If you know of any good resources for such stories besides Snopes, please link! We need more Plots & Places threads with delicious, chewy meat. Or paneer, if you're lacto-vegetarian.


NB: I realize using typical urban legend-conspiracy theory stuff isn't original at all! Please don't take that as my point.

 

[amerigoV]

NB: I realize using typical urban legend-conspiracy theory stuff isn't original at all! Please don't take that as my point.

I think it is a great idea, especially for a modern game. That would be fun for a horror game (hot date leads to a missing kidney - hasn't that happened to all of us!) or just a one-off spoof (every scene is an urban legend).

Tropes are part of the game - they are tried, true, and familiar. We all just put a few twists on them. So the urban legend approach is a nice variant.

 

[Whizbang Dustyboots]

Yeah, some of these are actually in WWGS Urban Legends book -- there's multiple explanations for the kidney thief thing, for instance -- but that doesn't make them not worth plundering.

I hadn't heard the little old lady or helping kids myths. What are those? I may well plunder them for my Hunter game!

 

[Miss Capri]

I've written some stories together with someone else that used chain letters as a basis, one was a funny wrap-up of two different forwards that were incomplete, and another contained a bunch of crazy Farmville etc. and death-chain ghosts fighting over another death-chain ghost. another story didn't center around a chain letter, but incorporated one into the agenda of its antagonist, or rather, villain.

 

[RedTonic]

Yeah, some of these are actually in WWGS Urban Legends book -- there's multiple explanations for the kidney thief thing, for instance -- but that doesn't make them not worth plundering.

I hadn't heard the little old lady or helping kids myths. What are those? I may well plunder them for my Hunter game!

You can find more related things at snopes.com: Rape Victim Lured by Child

I believe the old lady thing is linked in that article as well. (I went to quote the chain email, but then discovered it was FREAKISHLY long, plus capslock... Blocks of it.)

Personally, I use the conspiracy things less; I find the "warnings" fascinating--and revealing!

 

[Wednesday Boy]

I believe the old lady thing is linked in that article as well.

snopes.com: Hairy-Armed Hitchhiker

The last sentence of the first letter sounded just like something from Jack Handey. "As I bit into the nectarine, it had a crisp juiciness about it that was very pleasurable - until I realized it wasn't a nectarine at all, but A HUMAN HEAD!"

 

[RedTonic]

That's the type of ending that clever guy was parodying, I think. The "shocking twist"! Those are fun to try to predict, but difficult to make unexpected.

 

[Dioltach]

(hot date leads to a missing kidney - hasn't that happened to all of us!)

Sadly, I never had enough hot dates to really run the risk of something like that happening. Or maybe I always missed out on the hot dates because my kidneys just weren't that interesting.

 

[hagor]

(hot date leads to a missing kidney - hasn't that happened to all of us!)

Not more than twice, though...

Hagor