World of Darkness Help Request

[Heroquestelf]

I need help with a pen & paper World of Darkness game. I'm massively jumping the gun, & I know that, but I'm trying to build a really rocking game for a special event that's coming in a few months and I'm having some real trouble.

Every year, the highlight of our gaming calender is the Halloween game. This has become a tradition for our group. Last year's game was our best one yet, and I ran it. Thus the torch has been passed to me as the official Halloween DM.

This is a big honor, and it has put me under a lot of pressure. I've got all of these really amazing, really cool events to happen in game, but I'm missing the most important, most vital element of the game...

The plotline.

I'm asking you guys to give me a hand, if you would be willing. I need two things in the plotline.

#1. I need it to be seriously creepy--something decidedly Halloweeny.

#2. It needs to be a plotline that can be solved in one night, one 5 to 6 hour game.

Anything would help, even if it's nothing more than a random idea. Maybe it'll help spawn something in me.

Thanks in advance. Sorry for cluttering up your message board.

[S.J. Grey]

Hello there, and welcome to the forum!

We've got a lot of really creative problem-solvers on the board, but it always helps to give people a place to start. The info you gave in your post is a little on the vague side, so would it be possible to tell us what some of these really amazing and cool events are?

(As a personal aside, one of my favorite Halloween movies is "Trick 'R Treat," so if you haven't seen that, it might help provide some inspiration!)

[SalmonMax]

My advice: Stick to the basics. The more complex you get, the less likely it is to work.

The Basics of Horror (IMO) are:

1) Vulnerability. The characters must feel vulnerable. In classical horror, this means isolation. Cut the characters off from support. This can be via a remote setting, or a more socially imposed isolation (if they're in a mental ward, who will listen to them?). This is an inversion of an instinctive need human beings have to cluster together...we draw comfort from knowing that, if we need it, help is there. Take that away, and we feel exposed and vulnerable.

2) The Unknown. The most terrifying things are the things we don't see, and can't understand. A hint of movement in the shadows beyond the campfire's light. A liquid gurgling, gargling noise from the garage, behind the closed door. The faint smell of blood in a pristine room. Engage the senses, but don't connect the dots. This connects to #1 too (as most will), because if we don't know what's going on, we can't plan for it...which robs us of our greatest weapon (our brains) and makes us what? Vulnerable.

3) Ugly, ugly death. It's not enough to just DIE in horror. It has to be ugly. It has to be something people look at and think, "Dude, I'd shoot myself before going like that." In the face of the unknown, give the characters one concrete thing - what awaits them if they get caught. Note that it IS okay...and sometimes very effective...just to HINT at ugly, ugly death. High pitched screams that suddenly cut off with a ragged, splintering noise. They run to see, and all that's left is a giant bloodspatter, and a severed pinky finger right in the middle. We don't know what happened, but it seems awful. Another good device is to conceal the ugly death as something else, then have them realize what it really was after the fact. An example of this is in Watchmen, when Rorschach sees the dog gnawing a meaty bone outside several times before he puts two and two together, and realizes just what that bone is from.

[Heroquestelf]

Okay, fair enough... some details.

As I said, it's World of Darkness, so the players are all playing normal, run of the mill humans. It is set in modern day.

The game itself is going to be played out in the shed in the back yard. I'm going to have Midnight Syndicate going on the stereo, which I've jerry rigged a surround sound system. I'm going to have spotlights out one of the windows which will cut on at a really suspenseful part... and my crowning touch is I've rigged up a knocker which will beat on the back wall of the shed when I flip a switch. The room will also be lit by candle light, some natural, some artificial.

Oh, and I've also got some other sound effects I'm going to rig up.

[BlueNinja]

If you haven't already, check out the archives at www.roleplayingrips.com - specifically the one about horror games, and there's a few on descriptive tips. Some of the tips they included were:

- Don't tell the players what they're up against. Leave clues, especially clues that could add up to different villains.

- Consider what words you're using to describe scenes. Find some stories that creep you out, and look closely at how events are described, then use that for inspiration.

- Consider how you're describing things. Not just tone of voice, but your posture, gestures, and what you're wearing also help to subconsciously set the scene.

Most importantly - don't overplan. It's inevitable that the players will manage to throw a wrench in your plans at some point.

[Charlie Cole]

Hmm. Here's my core idea. You probably want to have a classic Hunter: The Vigil style intro game. Basically, it starts just before a PC's friend/relative/VIP is killed in mysterious/horrific circumstances, part of the horror build-up is making something seem out of place with them, but wrong.

That brings in the party as a whole, who want to look into this mystery for whatever reason. It ends with them discovering the responsible supernatural entity, and driving off/killing them (at a likely high price).

Possible culprits:

- Young vampire

- Changeling (going after a fetch?)

- evil werewolf

- Slasher

[S.J. Grey]

To be more specific in my request, Hero: You said you already have these things set up, and an idea of several events that will occur in the game. If you would like us to help you construct a plot around those events, we need to know what they are. Why is the spotlight coming on? Why is something knocking at the back wall? Why are you playing that specific music? Do these things tie in to your ideas for the story, or signify something that is happening to/around the PCs? If so, it would be a huge benefit to us, in our effort to help you, if we knew why and how.

[Heroquestelf]

That's just it. I don't know why. I have these events planned and I'm trying to find a plotline device that will allow me to use them.

Mind you, if I land a really great plotline and I can't use any of them,... well, so be it. As I've said, this is a Halloween game, so I have until the end of October, which means none of the physical work has been done yet.

And as for the Midnight Syndicate, that's pretty standard horror-game fare. If you've never heard any of their music, I HIGHLY recommend it. It's great atmospheric stuff. Don't get the newest album, "Dead Matter", it's horrible. But the next to last, "13 Hour", is an AMAZING album. Go buy it!

[Charlie Cole]

What are the events you have planned?

[Heroquestelf]

Check the 4th post, or *my* 2nd post.

[S.J. Grey]

Ah! I misunderstood, then. When I read your original post, and you said you had events planned for the game, I thought that meant you knew of a few things that would be happening to the PCs, but were having trouble stringing them together coherently.

Will these be one-off characters, or are they using existing PCs with a history together?

[Heroquestelf]

One-off characters.