Horror Gaming and that damned line.

One thing most people tend to forget about when running or playing in a horror game is a line. Not the line that determines the limits of what kind of stuff should happen in the game. The blurry line that determines if it is a horror game or not. It's blurry because it can mean something different to each person... but it's still there.

This line really becomes apparent in modern day horror games. Take for instance how a lot of RPGs of the old White Wolf lines tend to go. They started out with an idea of horror but soon it turned into Dark Super Heroes or Dark Modern Day Fantasy (especially stuff like Changeling). They lost a lot of that early personal horror idea that was present in first edition Vampire and a some other works they did around that time. Now it doesn't mean you are playing it wrong by any means. If you and your group are having fun then you are playing it right and that's what counts.

But you need to acknowledge when it stops being horror.

What really tends to break that feel is when the PCs start having various powers to battle back at the darkness with. You become something more than human that can stand to toe to toe with the bad guys which isn't so scary all of a sudden. This is, as I said earlier, more akin to Dark Super Heroes. Playing Blade and the Nightstalkers or something.

The best single piece of advice I can give for running a modern day horror game is simple; keep the PCs human. If they become a vampire by being bitten or a werewolf or whatever then it should be game over for that character. Add them to the NPC list for the GM to use for the rest of the campaign. Place them in that vulnerable spot of being very mortal and unshakably human. They may gain knowledge, a few skills and maybe even an item or two. But never let them become anything like the things they are trying to fight.

If they get magic then make it a ritual requiring long term effort to make it work. Kult is a great source of inspiration for this as well as Unknown Armies (just stay away from the other abilities). Make them costly to get and even more costly to use. So they become a tool of last ditch desperation.

Keep the special items down to a minimum also. Think of things that may allow them to detect a very specific kind of creature but it can't give you anything exact. An amulet that makes it harder for a vampire to hurt them... but not impossible. Or something that requires an activation of the users blood to work, or some other sort of sacrifice. Keep them to a minimum and very specific so they don't become a catch all for everything they run into.

There is my advice about how to keep the game on the horror side of the line.

 

 

Lusus Naturae

 

 

Dark Conspiracy 1st edition

 

 

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Kult CCG Jackals Rising

More of the new cards we put together once upon a time.

Jackal
Pawn, Jackal (blue)
+1 CV for every Jackal in play.
+1 CV when attacking a pawn.
Stations 1-4
Cost Skull x2
CV 3

Mad Dog
Creature, Jackal (blue)
+1 CV for every Jackal in play.
Must attack a pawn when able, before attacking anything else.
Stations 1,2
Cost Skull x2, Eye
CV 5

Umbrada
Creature, Jackal (blue)
Attach to a pawn in another mystic cross. You now control that pawn during your attack phases.
+1 CV for every Jackal in play.
Stations 1-4
Cost Skull, Eye x2
CV +1

Coyote
Creature, Unique, Jackal (blue)
+1 CV for every Jackal in play.
Must attack during your turn if there are any available targets.
Station 4
Cost Skull x2, Eye x2
CV 8

Mass Meeting
Commandment
All Jackals in play may attack once each during their controllers phase.  They may not attack other Jackals.  You may have only one Mass Meeting in your deck.


And finally something to hit back at the Jackals with.

Manhunt
Commandment
Play whenever a Jackal defeats a pawn in combat.  That Jackal is discarded.

Kult CCG alternative Major Arcana and tournament rules

For a while the Kult CCG was getting a bit popular where I lived.  Was looking into starting up some sort of league play for it including coming up with new cards, tournament rules, etc.  Here are some of the ideas we had. 

Tournament and league play rules.

Major Arcana over rule Minor Arcana in all rule disputes.
When Major Arcana rules conflict with each other, the one with the highest Hierarchy + Pop Markers wins.

Cards restricted to one per deck.
Cleansing
Astaroth Stirs
Out of Control
Fettered is limited to the number of players with a max of 3.


New Major Arcana

The Upstart
Choose the four suits it has and it's color.  No powers and hierarchy = 0.

Hammad Al-Sufi the Dream Prince
Purple, Crescent x3 and an Eye.
All Pawns of Dreams and spell casters have +3 to CV and may cast dream spells without a suit match.
Hierarchy = 11

Maximillian, Prince of Fools
Purple, Eye x3 and a Skull
All Pawns of Madness and spell casters have +3 to CC and may cast madness spells without a suit match.
Hierarchy = 11

Horror Games - Player Responsibility

Running a horror game is a bit of work. You have to do some things different than you do for a normal run of the mill dungeon crawl or shoot em up action affair. Pulling it off with the desired results is a bit of a reach for a lot of folks but when it happens both the GM and the players will remember it.

This article is no longer available for free and is part of Clandestine Societies Issue One over on DrivethruRPG. 

Kult - The Black Tiles

Here is an unfinished article I was working on a while back.  Something interesting to drop into the possession of the PC's in a KULT game.  While I never finished stating it completely out you pretty much get the full idea here.  The chances of me ever finishing it are slim to none so I might as well share what I have so far.

The Black Tiles

For years these little artifacts have been circulating among cults and subversive societies. Small black squares that defy ones own eyes and are said to provide visions, supernatural abilities and even extend the lives of those who possess them. You can find them by following the trails of murders, sacrifices and death that always seem to occur whenever they are around. Either by those who claim to control their powers, or by those who seek them.

Appearance

These tiles are square, three inches long on all sides and a quarter inch thick. They feel heavier than any normal stone tile by about double the weight. Visually they normally appear as a flat black but when looked at from various views they change from a shiny finish, to marbleized with red streaks, to a static gray and even to a slightly transparent smoke color.

What they do

First and foremost they erode the mental balance of anyone who stays near them for any extended period of time. The rate of loss is around one point per week if it stays within their nearby vicinity, or by one a day if they carry it on their person. Negative mental traits are picked up, usually in the psychopathic variety. The desire to cause harm and suffering to others grows steadily within them.

Any user of the Lore of Death receives a bonus to their skill level whenever it is included as a center piece to any of their rituals.

After and hour or so around the tile people with an already low mental balance will start to hear voices. Usually the sounds of people crying out in pain, begging to be killed and lots of sobbing and screaming.

Someone with a mental balance higher than a positive 50 feels uncomfortable at the site of them. Getting headaches, nosebleeds and nausea the longer they stay around one.

What they are

In actual reality these tiles are stolen from Inferno by a Nepharite years ago. Removed from the floor of a torture chamber in an abandoned citadel. Some unknown deal was made with a Lictor who brought them over into the illusion for their own nefarious uses.

Jaded Gamer Diary Kult fecal factor

It simply keeps getting deeper and deeper the more I look at the Kult Divinity Lost Kickstarter.  Seriously it does. 

Apparently they also don't want to hear from their backers about the system unless they spend $176 or over.  Because at that level you get:

* Access to the KULT Collector’s Forum, with previews, discussions, and early playtest access to the game before release."

So feedback and playtesting is restricted to those willing to drop more cash.  Which falls right into some thoughts on why they are being so hush hush on the rules.  They want people to back at these high levels so afterwards they can be the ones to actually see the rules. 

Really it seems like a blatant cash grab from fans no matter how you look at it.  Now let's see what other nuggets I can find.

What is the Player's Guide, exactly?
Exactly, we don’t know yet. We have a general idea, and it will be easy-to-access info that the players need at character generation and during actual play. Also, equipment stats, condensed versions of basic rules, etc.

The Players Guide is something they are offering as an add-on and they don't know what is going to be in it.  Yeah great planning there folks.

Will the KULT Bible,KULT Screen and similar add-ons be available once the Kickstarter concludes?
At this moment in time, the only confirmed items in this Kickstarter campaign that will be available after it is finished is the ILLUSION EDITION, the ENLIGHTENED EDITION, and the ELYSIUM EDITION

So in this world of print on demand they may not make the GM Screen or the bible available except to those who back the Kickstarter.  This smells like they only have plans to do what they have for this Kickstarter and then be done with the game if you ask me.

Now as for the rules all we are getting is the same example from their Facebook post only worded a little bit different.  PbtA fans are saying it looks like PbtA while some of the people running the Kickstarter are saying it's roots are in PbtA but it's not.  So far the only real changes they have mentioned are they are using D10's as the dice and the GM determine bad outcomes.

Last but not least I have to ask.

Why the fuck are people backing this sight unseen?  All they have given are some pretty pictures, promises and vague badly worded examples. 

Jaded Gamer Diary - People love to hate

People love to hate.  This is true of just about any group of people.  Anything negative and they will go all apeshit and response with more negativity causing even more to be created in it's process.  Although I have noticed to groups who love to wallow in the hate more than any other.  Those who are 'devoutly' religious and those who are gamers. 

Case in point, my Jaded Gamer Diary entries get more traffic than anything positive I've done.  Same with my Be A Better Player articles which are filled with snark and even the very short lived Rules For Asshole GM's got a lot of hits (I really need to restart that one). 

But a really nice showing of this happened recently.  Just a few scant weeks before John Wick blew the fucking roof off the mother with his 7th Sea second edition Kickstarter he wrote up an article that pissed off so many people.  I mean folks were downright angry over it.  But he also wrote a follow up article that was almost universally ignored. 

First he posted up "The Worst Adventure of All Times" in which he named 'Tomb of Horrors' the winner of that title.  Then he posted up "The Best Adventure of All Times" right after with the original 'Ravenloft' adventure getting the call.

Worst Adventure got 13k+ facebook shares, shitloads of comments, counter articles and people gnashing at the teeth over it  Best Adventure got 392 facebook shares, 13 comments (some of them still bitching about the Worst Adventure) and almost zero reaction.  It's all about the hate.

So next time you find yourself bitching about somebody being negative towards something about the gaming hobby you happen to like think for a moment.  Wouldn't it be more constructive to point out something positive?  Maybe add something to the hobby?  Well the answer is NO, it wouldn't amount to anything more than a small turd in a sewage plant because nobody really fucking cares about the positive things.

Hell why do you think I keep writing these things.

Oh you can find John Wicks articles over at his site: http://johnwickpresents.com/

Now go bitch at somebody about how much of a dick I am.