 Horror, anybody try this... |
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 Apr 12 2006, 04:21 AM
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#1
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Moving Target  Group: Members Posts: 176 Joined: 7-September 05 From: Austin, TX Member No.: 7,706  |
Simple question, has anyone tried a horror campaign within the shadowrun world?
If so, what did you do, what problems did you run into(if any), yadda yadda yadda... Just curious |
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Apr 12 2006, 04:23 AM
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#2
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Great Dragon Group: Members Posts: 6,640 Joined: 6-June 04 Member No.: 6,383 |
Well, once I had the party battle gay hentai tentacle monsters in a warehouse. People kept calling bullshit over the range at which they could squirt their tentacle monster slime and I had to explain that since they were tentacle monsters their slime-shooting spigots were practically omniponent. I guess the players didn't watch enough hentai. Either way I think that that was pretty horrific.
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Apr 12 2006, 04:30 AM
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#3
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Shooting Target Group: Members Posts: 1,590 Joined: 11-September 04 Member No.: 6,650 |
yes I have horrified my players
it is not difficult 2 words Medical Experiments |
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Apr 12 2006, 04:33 AM
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#4
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Moving Target Group: Members Posts: 176 Joined: 7-September 05 From: Austin, TX Member No.: 7,706 |
ROFLMAO OMG that is too fucking funny... and they were gay to boot, they were prolly only attacking the men in the party and only the good looking guys. I feel sorry for the elf in the group. but seriously... how would you pull off a horror campaign when your players are armed with guns and magic? |
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Apr 12 2006, 04:39 AM
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#5
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Great Dragon Group: Members Posts: 5,430 Joined: 10-January 05 From: Fort Worth, Texas Member No.: 6,957 |
The biggest problem would be converting horrors. You have to either make them beatable (but just barely) or end up with a Call of Cthulu game, which might be better served by using the CoC system. I wouldn't know though, as I've never played CoC.
I would definitely ramp way back on combat and way up on messed up stuff screwing with the runners' minds. The first thing I'd proabbly do is try to dig up an old Earthdawn adventure that was based around a magical site, convert it, then run that just to see how the premise would work without putting in the effort of creating an entire idea for a campaign only to find out that it's more work than I've got time for. |
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Apr 12 2006, 04:40 AM
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#6
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Running Target Group: Members Posts: 1,353 Joined: 5-June 02 Member No.: 2,840 |
That's something I always wondered. How can you scare players when they're armed like that? In Call of Cthulhu, the horror comes from the fact that the characters are neither used to these things, nor are they equipped to deal with them. In SR, they tend to be both. I can see a few ways out of this: 1. Create a whole new nightmarish monster, one never encountered before 2. Go for shock value and put in stuff that leaves even hardened street sams whispering "Dear God in heaven..." 3. Introduce an element of uncertainty somehow - hiding the villain behind layers of intrigue (the only example I could think of this would be the movie "Saw"), giving them a mystery to solve (Like the movie "Se7en") or something else like that. |
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Apr 12 2006, 04:47 AM
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#7
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Shooting Target Group: Members Posts: 1,590 Joined: 11-September 04 Member No.: 6,650 |
or you could take the stats for jehuthras from Harlequin's back and reverse engineer conversions from there |
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Apr 12 2006, 04:49 AM
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#8
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Great Dragon Group: Members Posts: 5,430 Joined: 10-January 05 From: Fort Worth, Texas Member No.: 6,957 |
Reverse engineering being one of those things I probably wouldn't have time for. :)
I started a horror based campaign in SR3, or at least planned on tying in horros at a later date, but that campaign died fairly early on (I tend to not hold back when the players go up against the wrong opposition, and you could only Hand of God once in those days). I may try it again some time. |
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Apr 12 2006, 04:55 AM
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#9
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Moving Target Group: Members Posts: 176 Joined: 7-September 05 From: Austin, TX Member No.: 7,706 |
let me clarify a bit...
when i say "horror" i mean like... you know... horror... like, scarey like, "OMG i just shit my pants, that scared me" not like, " hey watch out, there's a horror in the cavern" Although i just finished a run this Sunday where we banished the spirit of a horror. My rat shaman successfully avoided all combat. :) Like i said before, how scarey can somethingbe when all you have to do is shoot it or blast it with magic. |
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Apr 12 2006, 04:56 AM
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#10
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Moving Target Group: Members Posts: 684 Joined: 8-April 06 From: My dorm room Member No.: 8,438 |
Deus' takeover of the Renraku Arcology was pretty horrific, if you ask me. In fact, the whole concept is the stuff that horror films are made of: people trapped inside a dark, fortress-like building, desperately trying to escape from an evil AI's burgeoning army of brainwashees, which is trying to capture said people and make them into test subjects in hideous experiments. |
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Apr 12 2006, 04:58 AM
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#11
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Running Target Group: Members Posts: 1,353 Joined: 5-June 02 Member No.: 2,840 |
Oooh, yeah, good point. Everything I've heard about Brainscan says it's a horrific kind of adventure (a good example of my number 2 point in my post above). |
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Apr 12 2006, 05:01 AM
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#12
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Great Dragon Group: Members Posts: 5,430 Joined: 10-January 05 From: Fort Worth, Texas Member No.: 6,957 |
Chuck: that's one of the reasons I mentioned the CoC system. From what I understand, those aren't things you can fight. It was the same in Earthdawn (you could fight them but you'd lose).
The same should hold true in SR. To be a true horror it would have to have high levels of shielding (or just counterspelling in SR4). It would also need immunity to normal weapons at a fairly decent level. From what I've heard my players say, Queen Euphoria was kinda like a Horror campaign, given that they never had a party try and make a run at the hive and live. |
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Apr 12 2006, 05:02 AM
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#13
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Great Dragon Group: Members Posts: 5,430 Joined: 10-January 05 From: Fort Worth, Texas Member No.: 6,957 |
Which gives me one idea for a horror that would fit well into SR: a hivemind of some sort. You can shoot it all you want, but it'll just keep coming. I guess that's why they nuked Chicago. :)
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Apr 12 2006, 05:05 AM
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#14
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Great, I'm a Dragon... Group: Retired Admins Posts: 6,699 Joined: 8-October 03 From: North Germany Member No.: 5,698 |
The Horrors of Earthdawn are beatable, if only by high-circle adepts. It's their subtle manipulation that makes ED-Horrors so dangerous, much like their CoC-counterparts. In CoC the characters can fight the "Horrors", but they won't win, thanks to sanity loss and the immunity of most "Horrors" their to mundane weapons - and casting spells makes your character go insane. |
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Apr 12 2006, 05:07 AM
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#15
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Manus Celer Dei Group: Dumpshocked Posts: 17,006 Joined: 30-December 02 From: Boston Member No.: 3,802 |
Brainscan isn't that that great for horror. If you want horror, throw them into the Arcology without any sort of warning or companions who know the story.
~J |
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Apr 12 2006, 05:15 AM
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#16
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Midnight Toker Group: Members Posts: 7,686 Joined: 4-July 04 From: Zombie Drop Bear Santa's Workshop Member No.: 6,456 |
As much as I'd love to run an SR horror game I have only run one horror scenario ever and that was for The Other Game. It involved an inn/brothel run by vampiric beauties. Unfortunatly, I laid the flavor on a little too thick too soon and the party slaughtered the women as a matter of course.
Remember, there are two types of horror stories. There are the stories about the monster outside and there are the stories about the monster inside. The latter is universally more frightening and disturbing. The external moster can be fought and possibly killed leaving us safe from it. The internal monster can remain a part of us for ages without ever showing itself and there is no way to know if it is ever really gone. One very nice idea for an internal horror campaign would be to run Bug City but, before the campaign starts hand each player a numbered envolope with instruction to look at the paper inside once and then put the paper back in the envelope and return it to you without disclosing the contents to any other player. As each envelope is returned have the players note their numbers on their character sheets. The sheet of paper in each envelope contains one sentence. "You are NOT a good merge. " Every now and then check the numbers on there sheets as if they are actually important. Keep the paranoia going and turn up the heat in game but keep it just below the boiling point. The trick is to make them fear the other PCs constantly but not so much that they start killing each other. |
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Apr 12 2006, 05:17 AM
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#17
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Moving Target Group: Members Posts: 684 Joined: 8-April 06 From: My dorm room Member No.: 8,438 |
Or just send them in while the Arc's shut down: after all, initial reports on what was going on were sketchy at best.
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Apr 12 2006, 05:24 AM
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#18
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Great Dragon Group: Members Posts: 6,640 Joined: 6-June 04 Member No.: 6,383 |
Ha ha. Well, naturally the PCs didn't realize they were gay at first so the elf face lead the charge. He was like, "Oh my frikking god" when they found out the monsters were gay. |
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Apr 12 2006, 05:26 AM
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#19
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Moving Target Group: Members Posts: 565 Joined: 7-January 04 Member No.: 5,965 |
for good horror, you have to start slow, and build tension slow over time. preferably over a few games.
horror must have an unknown, unknowable threat. something that cant be looked up in some book. so lets have an example... first run, we show the aftermath of when an evilugly kills someone. lots of graphic detail in the wounds. bonus points, if it was in a locked room without visible entrance. next run, we hear a rumor. and maybe catch a glimpse in bad light. what could it be? how about a sprite that can manifest in the real world. able to climb out of a video screen... something with a power much similar to a magical beasts weapon immunity, but weapon foci do nothing. adept powers and magic? nothing. its just NOT THERE. but it dosent want YOU. not yet. just the guy your extracting. for now. of course, a technomancer could hurt those things. maybe banish it. maybe a technomancer is summoning more? what if one got free? the real key, is to slowly hand out information, over time. let em wonder. if they wonder aloud, steal ideas as needed. |
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Apr 12 2006, 05:51 AM
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#20
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Great Dragon Group: Members Posts: 5,430 Joined: 10-January 05 From: Fort Worth, Texas Member No.: 6,957 |
True. I never got that far along. We always started at first circle (or whatever the equivilent of 1st level is, it's been forever). Of course, Earthdawn at several points would tell the GM something similar to "be sure and kill a character or two here, so they know it won't be easy." |
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Apr 12 2006, 05:53 AM
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#21
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Shooting Target Group: Members Posts: 1,590 Joined: 11-September 04 Member No.: 6,650 |
oh in ED the low end horrors can be killed by low circle adepts
there are adventures where 3rd circle adepts kill a horror |
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Apr 12 2006, 05:55 AM
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#22
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Great Dragon Group: Members Posts: 5,430 Joined: 10-January 05 From: Fort Worth, Texas Member No.: 6,957 |
Guess I never played one of those. It probaly wouldn't have mattered though. Someone would have said "look, a horror!" and I would have run like hell. :D
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Apr 12 2006, 05:59 AM
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#23
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Midnight Toker Group: Members Posts: 7,686 Joined: 4-July 04 From: Zombie Drop Bear Santa's Workshop Member No.: 6,456 |
Some horrors are very easy to kill. Gnashers are a prime example. Dread iotas are too. What makes the horrors work is their diversity. You can slaughter thousands of dread iotas with a single purify water spell but once they get inside of you you're as good as dead. A single gnasher poses little threat to the weakest of adepts but they travel in rather large packs.
There are no two classes of unamed horrors that are similar and no two named horrors that are similar. What works against one probably won't work against another. |
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Apr 12 2006, 06:01 AM
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#24
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Moving Target Group: Members Posts: 176 Joined: 7-September 05 From: Austin, TX Member No.: 7,706 |
Holy shit that is fucking hilarious, comedic genius i was only able to stop laughing long enough to type this classic... |
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Apr 12 2006, 06:17 AM
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#25
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Shooting Target Group: Members Posts: 1,590 Joined: 11-September 04 Member No.: 6,650 |
"A Gnasher for every man, woman, and Child in Seattle. That sounds like the thinking of Verjigorm, to me."
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