Horror Set Pieces: Children of the Night (Fate Accelerated)

Listen to them, the children of the night.
What music they make!
- Bram Stoker, Dracula

As the release date of the Fate Horror Toolkit draws closer and my excitement grows, I decided to write up some more bits and bobs to use in a Fate Accelerated horror campaign. Animals forced to do the bidding of evil powers is a classic horror trope. Using the same idea behind the mob of angry villagers from last time, here are some of the children of the night ready to confront a party of supernatural investigators.

Pack of Wolves
Aspect: Pack Mentality
Skilled (+2) at: Nocturnal Hunting, Tracking by Scent, Keen Hearing, Howling
Bad (-2) at: Diurnal Activity, Resisting the Master’s Call
Stress: ⬜⬜⬜ (6 wolves)
For the strength of the Pack is the Wolf, and the strength of the Wolf is the Pack. - Rudyard Kipling, The Second Jungle Book (The Law for the Wolves)

Cloud of Bats
Aspect: Night Hunters
Skilled (+2) at: Flying, Echolocation, Obscuring Vision, Spreading Disease
Bad (-2) at: Light and Fire, Diurnal Activity
Stress: ⬜⬜⬜⬜ (50-100 bats)
Clip their wings? Man, could you just shoot their damn heads off? And don't miss. - Jimmy Sands, sʇɐ𐐒 (1999 Destination Films)

Horde of Rats
Aspect: Roiling Mass of Teeth and Claws
Skilled (+2) at: Squeezing through Tight Spaces, Seeing in the Dark, Swimming, Spreading Disease
Bad (-2) at: Light, Detecting Rat Poison, Cats
Stress: ⬜⬜⬜⬜ (50-100 rats)
For on every side of the chamber the walls were alive with nauseous sound—the verminous slithering of ravenous, gigantic rats. - H.P. Lovecraft, The Rats in the Walls

Swarm of Bees
Aspect: Hive Mind
Skilled (+2) at: Stinging, Flying, Pollination, Making Honey
Bad (-2) at: Smoke and Fire, Bears
Stress: ⬜⬜⬜⬜⬜ (~500 bees)
Nearby there was an apiary. Dozens of hives, filled with hungry bees. They smashed the hive and stole the honeycomb and smeared it over his prone, naked body. Candyman was stung to death by the bees. - Professor Philip Purcell, Candyman (1992 PolyGram Filmed Entertainment)
Not the bees!!!!!! - Edward Malus, The Wicker Man (2006 Warner Brothers)

Plague of Locusts
Aspect: Retribution from Above
Skilled (+2) at: Flying, Deafening Chirping, Blotting Out the Sun, Destroying Crops and Wooden Structures
Bad (-2) at: Birds, Pesticides, Ultrasonic Interference
Stress: ⬜⬜⬜⬜⬜⬜ (~1000 locusts)
Then out of the smoke came locusts upon the earth, and power was given them… - Revelations 9:3

Scourge of Mosquitoes
Aspect: Bloodsucking Parasites
Skilled (+2) at: Flying, Biting, Swamps and Jungles, Malaria
Bad (-2) at: Avoiding Getting Swatted, Insect Repellents
Stress: ⬜⬜⬜ (~100 mosquitoes)
It is astonishing how much worse one mosquito can be than a swarm. A swarm can be prepared against, but one mosquito takes on a personality—a hatefulness, a sinister quality of the struggle to the death. - F. Scott Fitzgerald, On Booze

Infestation of Flies
Aspect: Common Nuisance or Sign of the Devil’s Presence?
Skilled (+2) at: Flying Backwards, Biting, Dodging Fly Swatters, Landing on Food
Bad (-2) at: Windows and Screens, Fly Paper
Stress: ⬜⬜⬜ (~100 flies)
You never walk alone. Even the devil is the lord of flies. - Gilles Deleuze
Flies are the dead man's revenge. - George R.R. Martin, A Storm of Swords

Swarm of Scarab Beetles
Aspect: Flesh-Eating Defenders of Ancient Egyptian Tombs
Skilled (+2) at: Desert Environments, Stripping Flesh to the Bone, Spreading Disease, Rolling Dung Balls
Bad (-2) at: Fire, Cold
Stress: ⬜⬜⬜⬜⬜ (~500 scarab beetles)
All people who enter this tomb, make evil against this tomb and destroy it, may the scarabs descend upon them and feast upon their flesh until only their bones remain as a warning to others. - Ancient Egyptian Curse of the Pharaohs

Horror Set Pieces: Angry Mob of Villagers (Fate Accelerated)

One of the things I like about Fate Accelerated(FAE) is the ability to treat a group of nameless mooks as a single unit effectively treating the group as a single character. In fact, many Fate Core GMs prefer to use the mook group rules from FAE instead of the rules for mobs found in Fate Core. These groups of mooks are comprised of a single aspect, a short list of things they are good at (+2 bonus) and things they are bad at (-2 penalty), and one stress box for every two individuals in the group. If you need more in the crowd, just use more than one of that group (although I suppose you could increase the number of stress boxes instead but then they would only get one action per exchange). It makes designing nameless NPCs easier and reduces bookkeeping.

One of the staples seen in classic horror films (especially Frankenstein movies) is the angry mob of villagers armed with torches and pitchforks. They find safety in numbers to go after someone (usually the monster) they would never dare confront alone and are usually more of a hindrance than a help if not an outright danger to themselves and others. Below is one such angry mob of villagers (lederhosen optional).

Angry Mob of Villagers
Aspect: Torches & Pitchforks
Skilled (+2) at: Starting Fires, Safety in Numbers, Shaming Others
Bad (-2) at: Planning Ahead, Dwindling Numbers, Being Shamed
Stress: ⬜⬜⬜ (6 villagers)

Carnacki the Ghost-Finder for CRYPTWORLD

William Hope Hodgson's occult detective Thomas Carnacki returns again tonight, this time as a player character for CRYPTWORLD by Goblinoid Games. For those who aren't familiar with this roleplaying game, CRYPTWORLD is a retroclone of the original 1984 CHILL RPG from Pacesetter Games. It's definitely old school but still a lot of fun. I'm a huge fan as you can see by a lot of the content on this blog.

Today I spent some time thinking about what other RPG systems I want to feature in this series of blog posts. Right now my short list includes Fear Itself/GUMSHOE, The Window, Masque of the Red Death (AD&D 2nd Edition), and Icons Superpowered Roleplaying (because I think Carnacki in a supers RPG would be awesome). Here's tonight's offering for CRYPTWORLD:

Thomas Carnacki, Ghost-Finder (CRYPTWORLD)

BACKGROUND NOTES
Profession: Occult Detective Education: Self-taught in matters of the supernatural
Nationality: British Place of Birth: Appledorn (South Coast England)
Age: 45 (1913) Year of Birth: 1868
Sex: Male Height: 5’ 9” Weight: 176 lbs
Hair Color: Brown Eye Color: Brown Features: Moustache
Residence: 427 Cheyne Walk, Chelsea, London

BASIC ABILITIES
Strength (STR): 48
Dexterity (DEX): 56
Agility (AGL): 52
Personality (PER): 60
Willpower (WPR): 62
Perception (PCN): 72
Luck (LUCK): 38
Stamina (STA): 62

BASIC STATISTICS
Unskilled Melee: 53 = (STR+AGL)/2
Penetration Bonus: 0
Current Stamina: 62 Stamina Recovery Rate: 5/round of rest
Wounds: 14
Current Willpower: 62 Willpower Recovery Rate: 10/hour of uninterrupted sleep

SKILLS
Humanities [History] Specialist: 82 = ((PCN+WPR)/2) + 15
Investigation Expert: 95 = ((PCN+WPR+PER)/3) + 30
Languages [Ancient Texts] Specialist: 82 = ((PCN+WPR)/2) + 15
Photography Specialist: 79 = ((PCN+DEX)/2) + 15
Preternatural Lore Master: 122 = ((PCN+WPR)/2) + 55

WEAPONS
Pistol [Revolver]: 56 (DEX) Range Modifier: -7 Ammo: 6 ROF: 4 Reload: 2 rounds

GEAR
Camera
Electric Pentacle

Carnacki tells his haunted tale after dinner.

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

Carnacki the Ghost-Finder for Fate Accelerated

Carnacki by VoteQuimby

I thought it might be a fun exercise this week to stat up one of my favorite literary occult detectives in several RPG systems I like just to see them side-by-side. I want to not only re-familiarize myself with the game mechanics of these systems but to compare and contrast how each system handles different facets of the character. I've chosen William Hope Hodgson's Thomas Carnacki for this purpose as I've recently revisited the collected Carnacki stories while embarking on a personal project to trace the roots of the occult detective archetype in fiction, a genre that includes such notables as Dr. Martin Hesselius (Sheridan Le Fanu), Abraham Van Helsing (Bram Stoker), Dr. John Silence (Algernon Blackwood), and Jules de Grandin (Seabury Quinn). Hodgson's Carnacki stories are now in the public domain (first published in 1913) and you can read them at Project Gutenberg.

First up is Fate Accelerated Edition from Evil Hat Games:

Thomas Carnacki, Ghost-Finder (FAE)

ASPECTS
High Concept: Renowned Occult Detective Practicing the Empirical Method
Trouble: Apprehensive and Irresolute at Times
Creature of Habit
State of the Art Gadgets
Extensive Occult Library

APPROACHES
Careful +2
Clever +3
Flashy +0
Forceful +1
Quick +1
Sneaky +2

STUNTS
Because Carnacki invented the electric pentacle, he gets a +2 when he Carefully defends when within the device’s protective circle against spectral manifestations.

Because Carnacki studied the Saaamaaa Ritual and an ancient text known as the Sigsand Manuscript, he gets a +2 when he Cleverly creates advantages when confronted by supernatural influences.

Because Carnacki possesses a sixth sense, once per game session he can choose to go first in a physical conflict with the supernatural.

Refresh: 3

Games and Media I Enjoyed in February 2018

We are now in the month of April so my monthly recap of the things I enjoyed in February is long past due. I spent most of February in nightly rehearsals for the musical Cabaret (which ran successfully in early March to good reviews and audience reception), so I had a few false starts on some of the things I began to consume (Lovecraft Country I am looking at you) but intend to return to those in the near future. I still managed to finish a few things I started and present my favorites below. (Spoiler: I spent most of March in rehearsal for Arsenic and Old Lace opening next weekend.)

BATES MOTEL SEASON 5

Bates Motel has been one of my favorite shows since it first premiered, so when the final season finally dropped on Netflix in February, I stopped watching everything else and jumped right in. I rarely have enough time to binge-watch a show in an entire day or weekend, but I will do mini-binges of two or three episodes at bedtime (I usually fall asleep by the middle of the third or fourth episode and pick up from where I left off the next night). With Bates Motel, I found myself staying up later than usual, eager to jump right into the next episode.

This season did not disappoint. I am going to avoid any spoilers, but I have to admit the temptation is great. As always, the acting was first rate. Freddie Highmore (Norman Bates) is as intense and believable as always, and Vera Farmiga (Norma Bates) is probably one of my favorite American television actresses of all time, right up there with Edie Falco. Without really giving anything away, my favorite part of the season was when the events of the 1960 Alfred Hitchcock film adaption of Robert Bloch's novel Psycho began to unfold (money stolen from the bank right before the weekend up to the infamous shower scene), and were then turned completely on their head. Really well done!

All in all, the series conclusion left me satisfied with no loose ends or disappointments. I'm glad to see Freddie Highmore having continued success with his new series, The Good Doctor. 

CRIME SCENE d20 SOURCEBOOKS

Back at the start of the new millennium when Dungeons & Dragons was still in its third edition, British RPG publisher Hogshead Publishing released Crime Scene, a series of sourcebooks focusing on modern criminal investigation. All you needed was a copy of the D&D Players Handbook and you were good to go—the books included character classes, skills, and feats appropriate to the genre. Oddly, Hogshead never jumped on the d20 Modern bandwagon when Wizards of the Coast released that game based on D&D.

Crime Scene titles included Police Investigation, Feds, and Forensics, but there were two titles that particularly grabbed my interest at the time: Supernatural and Sheriff's Office: Red Pine Hollow. Red Pine Hollow is a fictional small town in the Pacific Northwest. You could use it for straight up drug/vice squad action and organized crime, but you were also encouraged to combine it with Supernatural to give it a Twin Peaks vibe. Similarly, Supernatural let you decide if psychic abilities, aliens, dark magic, etc. really exist in your campaign or are merely the delusional beliefs of cults on the FBI watch list. I decided to revisit these, particularly Red Pine Hollow, because I've been toying with the idea of formally writing up my personal default modern horror setting that I've used in many of my games over the years.

One of the criticisms of the Crime Scene line was the proliferation of skills, many seeming to cover similar ground. While there is some overlap, I never saw this as a huge problem. In a crime scene/police procedural game, you are going to have player characters who all do similar things and the increased number of skills helps to differentiate them and give everyone something to do and a specialist area to shine in. Pelgrane Press's GUMSHOE games do something very similar with their investigative abilities today (and do it very well). And while the Crime Scene titles are set in the United States, the authors unwittingly let some British-isms sneak in. A common colloquial unit of measurement in America is the football field—describing something as three football fields in length, for example; Crime Scene Supernatural amusingly used football pitch instead. Still, the books were well researched for the time but are now almost two decades old so "modern" might not fit as a descriptor anymore.

Crime Scene PDFs at DriveThruRPG

That's all for now. I hope to have a blog post about my March media consumption soon. Thanks for reading!

Games and Media I Enjoyed in January 2018

Inspired by Jack Shear of the Tales of the Grotesque and Dungeonesque blog, I thought this year I would do a monthly recap of some of the roleplaying game products, books, movies, and television shows I enjoyed consuming in the month prior. Jack's monthly recap always introduces me to something new and interesting, and hopefully I'll be able to do the same for others as well. I'll try to keep these related to the theme of this blog unless something really knocks my socks off.

A Note on Spoilers: I will do my best to avoid these when possible and merely whet your interest.

Here are some of the things I enjoyed in January 2018:

KIDS ON BIKES RPG

Kids on Bikes by Jon Gilmour and Doug Levandowski was the runaway RPG Kickstarter success story of 2017. Inspired by the hit Netflix original series Stranger Things, I eagerly backed this at a level that will eventually score me a hardcover expanded edition copy (plus a shit ton of modules designed by some of the biggest names in the indy RPG scene). I received my first backer reward in January: a PDF copy of the core rulebook (basic, not expanded). I dove right in and have to say I'm pretty impressed with the game.

This is a narrative-style RPG clearly influenced by Fate, Apocalypse World/various Powered By games, Cortex Plus, and perhaps more. It features collaborative setting building and player narrative control and hits all the right notes with regards to diversity and respect for the wishes and boundaries of the participant players. There are six stats—Brains, Brawn, Fight, Flight, Charm, and Grit—each of which is assigned a value of one of the following die types: d4 (your weakest stat), d6, d8, d10, d12, and d20 (your strongest stat). These stats are what you roll when you attempt to do something in the game (Stat Checks), either against a difficulty number or another character's opposing roll. There are degrees of success that decide outcome and narrative control of outcome, with an emphasis on "make failure interesting". When you fail a roll, you earn an Adversity Token you can apply as a bonus to future rolls.

What I particularly enjoyed is how the game handles powered characters, the role of Eleven in Stranger Things for example. The powered character is shared between players as well as the GM. Each player gets some aspect of the powered character to roleplay and make decisions for, be that the power itself, a personality trait or flaw, or how they react to other characters. Any player can activate any of these aspects at any time they feel appropriate during the game, but the player controlling that aspect is responsible for making it happen. The GM can introduce things about the powered character as well. It's very clever and a viable solution to the potential problem of every player wanting powers in a game that includes powers.

I also want to give a shout out to the inspired artwork by Heather Vaughan.

DARK
Dark is a German Netflix original series recently dubbed into English and released in the United States.

Pros: A clever science fiction/weird science story with a mystery to unravel akin to Lost, Twin Peaks, or Wayward Pines with hints of Stranger Things.

Cons: You really have to pay attention, more so than you did for Lost. There are many generational characters in several different families over three time periods separated by 33 years—2019, 1986, and 1953*—with some characters played by different actors depending on when the story is taking place**, and then they travel through time. Also the dubbing into English is awkward in many places. It's not as bad as a 1960s Japanese Godzilla flick, but with some characters speaking in English with an accent and others more American in style, at times it reminded me of a dubbed-into-English-from-Swedish Pippi Longstocking movie.

*Don't read anything into the order I listed these. Or do.

**The Wikipedia article has family trees now. Somebody should add stills of the actors. *thumb on nose* Not it!

AMERICAN HORROR STORY: ROANOKE

Out on Netflix. Mildly entertaining, but I think we've jumped the shark now.

THE THRILL OF DRACULA BY KEN HITE

If horror roleplaying games have a master authority, it would probably be Ken Hite. I've always enjoyed Ken's work, from the horror roleplaying bible Nightmares of Mine to GURPS Horror and more recently the GUMSHOE RPGs like Trail of Cthulhu and Night's Black Agents. I picked up The Thrill of Dracula as part of the recent Dracula Dossier (for Night's Black Agents) Bundle of Holding.

This book starts with an overview of the original Bram Stoker novel themes and characters. It then goes through almost every Dracula movie made—the good, the bad, and the ugly. Each movie is presented through a synopsis, how it differs from and/or pays tribute to the original novel, some thoughtful criticism, and a section on things you can take away and use at the game table. This last section is not only useful for Night's Black Agents campaigns but any game where the Count makes an appearance. I thoroughly enjoyed this book and discovered a few new Dracula movies I hadn't seen before and now I'm hunting down to watch.

MRS. AMWORTH

This half hour long vampire tale is from a very short-lived 1975 British television horror anthology series entitled Classics Dark and Dangerous. I learned about this forgotten little gem from a post on a folk horror site. Actress Glynis Johns (famous for her role in Mary Poppins) does an admirable job in the title role having previously appeared in the 1973 horror anthology movie The Vault of Horror. I enjoyed watching this, if only for the original take on the vampire's identity as a beloved member of the community. I only wish it was a little longer to give the quaint English country village where the story is set a chance to grow more as a character in its own right. It might make an interesting campaign setting.

Mrs. Amworth is based on a short story by E.F. Benson. Apparently there is a 2007 remake.


That's all for this month. Thanks for reading!