Carnacki the Ghost-Finder for Dead of Night

Carnacki by M. Wayne Miller

Yesterday I began a series of blog posts featuring William Hope Hodgson's occult detective Thomas Carnacki written up as a player character for some of my favorite RPGs starting with Fate Accelerated Edition (FAE). One thing that came up in the G+ discussions was how much FAE exists in the language space and how you don't really need to know the rules of the game to understand who the character is and what they can do just by reading the character sheet. In fact, I was able to pull directly from the FAE character write up when building the next incarnation of Carnacki presented below.

Dead of Night is in my opinion a brilliant yet very underappreciated rules-lite horror roleplaying game from Steampower Publishing. It's meant more for one-shots rather than full campaigns with each session played being essentially a horror movie (although sequels with the survivors are possible). Character creation is fast and easy (it didn't take me very long at all to come up with the stats below) and the game is designed to keep GM prep to a minimum. It features a very clever tension mechanic that paces the game in a way reminiscent of the tension buildup/release/repeat model found in all good horror movies. Thanks to a series of "dials" the GM can tweak, Dead of Night is equally at home doing slasher flicks, Hammer Horror, Asian horror, Lovecraftian horror, psychological horror, and even black comedy. If you haven't seen it, I highly recommend checking it out. Here's what a Dead of Night player character looks like:

Thomas Carnacki, Ghost-Finder (Dead of Night)

CONCEPT: Renowned Occult Detective Practicing the Empirical Method

ATTRIBUTES
Identify: 6 / Obscure: 2 / Occult Detective: 9
Persuade: 5 / Dissuade: 5
Escape: 4 / Pursue: 6
Assault: 2 / Protect: 4 / Electric Pentacle: 8 / Saaamaaa Ritual: 8

SURVIVAL POINTS: 5

BAD HABITS: Apprehensive and Irresolute at Times