Possible horror/survival rpg idea.

[Doktor_Q]

Stuff like character types, skills, and starting equipment would be something to negotiate at the start, probably with the GM. "Secret" parts could be checked over PMs.

Another thing: Setting. Is it a town? A building? An island? Ancient ruins? Wilderness? Is it naturally isolated, made isolated by simple circumstances, or some kind of supernaturally enforced perimeter?

Just to say, ghost stories work quite well. Been watching someone stream White Day lately, which is basically a Korean "trapped in a school with ghosts and a psychopathic janitor" game. It did it pretty well.

[Curry-Kohai]

As for setting, I think I am heavily leaning towards demonophobia for inspiration here, so, more common than not, your going to be in smaller rooms, like a medium sized house, but with more hallways and dead-ends, and I was thinking of an alternate dimension/some space that stands alone in time, like narnia, unless something just sounds better to me or overall fits with a modern setting in a better way.

Now, for skills/equipment, i'm going to generate a list of obvious equipment and specific skills based on the profession and history of the character. (like a policeman having a pistol, radio, flashlight, etc.) Not that weapons will help much

As for the difference between phobias and sanity, I think i've got something.
Its called "mentality" and there will be different types, right now I want about three, and these will decide your characters stand point on certain subjects, like moral mentality will be the characters views on moral standards and such, where 100% means they'll be nearly selfless, 50% meaning they'll be ready to sacrifice another unless he thinks himself worthless, and 0% being where the character has totally thrown out any idea of "morals" and is ready to cannibalize anybody who approaches. Right now i'm thinking of social, moral, and livelihood mentality.

If you have any ideas or suggestions about the mentalitys and the setting, feel free.

[Skele Von Mann]

Maybe the setting should be mundane at first, yes, it looks normal, but it gets weirder...




Percentage seems a bit weird to me.

[Curry-Kohai]

A slow descent from a normal neighborhood Into mad eyeball walls? That is a wonderful idea.
But now it begs the question of where will it originate from? I'm going to say a building, since plenty of hints can suggest a building is becoming strange. (i.e. What kind of plant is that!?) So what kind of building? A warehouse, perhaps?

And yes, percentage does seem strange now that I consider it, maybe a point-ish style? Like, 100 is your moral mentality and such, or it could be a generalization, perhaps by the same color system as health, so it opens a door to more role playing.

[Doktor_Q]

Hospitals, malls, police stations, apartment complexes, hotels, airports. Those are some good settings to start with. And of course, you can introduce all sorts of spacefuckery, like hallways being longer on one side than the other, more windows on the outside than the inside, and all kinds of lovely House of Leaves-style stuff.

As to the system, I'm writing up a little document thing, which I'll post tomorrow, possibly with pictures. There's quite a lot of bases to cover, but I think I've got a good general system.

[Curry-Kohai]

Speaking of which, think you could get your mob of attention starved artists or your brother to do the status thing? Thanks.

[Doktor_Q]

Status thing? Oh, with the colored silhouette?

Well... just see what I'm working on, it might be a bit different.

[Curry-Kohai]

Ok, neato, and an apartment complex is actually perfectly fitting with what i'm thinking, so apartment complex it is!

[Doktor_Q]

Here's a pitch for something that ended up being a lot simpler than I'd expected:

Condition is broken into two parts; body and mind. Body is your physical condition, Mind is your mental condition. Status in each is indicated by a color:

. Blue (good!)
. Green (normal)
. Yellow (poor)
. Red (bad)
. Purple (very bad!)
. Black (dead/lost)

Images to illustrate:



Body reaches black, you're dead. Mind reaches black, you're "lost," which is basically anything from vegetative to simply losing all capacity for higher though and acting like an animal, to becoming an empty husk controlled by demonic forces with no will of its own.

There are then two types of modifiers: Traumas and Skills.

A Trauma will give a penalty to any actions related to it. Traumas can be physical injuries or mental instabilities, and are gained throughout the game.

A Skill is the reverse, it will give a bonus to actions pertaining to it. Skills can be anything physical, mental, or emotional that the character is trained or positively experienced in. Skills are part of your character setup, and normally can't be gained or lost.

Both Skills and Traumas have a level, which determines how large of an effect they have on your abilities.

[Curry-Kohai]

Wow, thats great, and a lot simpler than I excpected.

Now, I think everything is settled unless the doktor has more ideas. So now, i'm making a map of the wretched place and finishing the concept art on the monsters and rooms, keep talking about it so I can get more ideas, and prepare your character now, because I estimate completion in about three days.

[Curry-Kohai]

How do you guys think about a main antagonist? Like, a thing that will relentlesly kill anything it comes by, it doesn't die, and it always smiles, damaging your characters body and mind. Going about so non-shalantly, it makes everyone go " oh no, not _____!" When they see it. Think about being in a house with kid buu, except he has a knife, like that.

[Doktor_Q]

That's somewhat necessary. Most horror things have at least one thing like that, unless they're really huge (cover a lot of area). It also helps provide a goal- It's vital that there be some way to "win," since this is a game. Ideally, this way to win should be pretty well defined, possibly with a lot of ways to get to it, I.E. make a deal with the antagonist, kill the antagonist, steal something from the antagonist, etc.

And by the same token, there needs to be a reason for everything. Why did all this start in the first place? Why is it still happening, and what could you do to stop it? This will probably be related to the primary villain, as well.

The reasons behind it don't have to be public knowledge from the start, but you should have them plotted out from the very start, otherwise things can happen that make no sense with the eventual reason. Or the reason ends up being really painfully trite.

[PLA]

[Skele Von Mann]

Does it really have to have a reason? After all, there are some things that can't just be explained by normal reasoning. It could come Ex nihilo for what the ordinary victims know of.




Just remember Trigger Discipline for gun safety, that'll help. Maybe.

[PLA]