My Halloween Game

[Lynn LeFey]

I make no secret on the boards that I am a dice-and-pencils Role Playing Gamer.

I usually run the game for our group, and every year, we have a Halloween One-shot game. This started from a tradition years back in another gaming group I was in, where each scenario, the players would be playing themselves in some horror scenario.

So, I've done a lot of stuff. Vampires, Abandoned summer camp on the lake, Insane Asylum, Ghost Ship, Archeological waking of elder Gods, and an outbreak of super-virulent rabies.

This year, I was going to do Zombies. But my players don't like zombies. But they bought the Rabies thing. Some time back, I saw a documentary on this 'Zombie Ant' thing, a fungus called Ophiocordyceps unilateralis. Cool. I even wrote a piece of short fiction using the fungus in the past.

So, I start doing more research, and find that it's the main plot element in the videogame 'The Last of Us'.

Well... smurf! So much for an original idea.

While it's not original, I'm sticking with it. I like my Halloween scenarios generally to be total-party-kills. Everyone dies, it's just how spectacularly you do it. In this game, it will be a moral decision. They'll be in a quarantine zone, and can escape, before the military comes in and nukes the place. The kicker is, they're infected. Leaving means spreading the infection. So, I'll see how it plays out.

For those of you who aren't familiar with Role Playing Games... No. I obviously don't ACTUALLY kill my players. It's all a game, acted out, played with little miniature figures to represent the players on a board. Sometimes I feel a need to add that, in case anyone read (and actually believes) the stupid 'Dark Dungeons' Chick Tract.

Every year in the past, I've let players write their own stats. This year, I'm going to have player stats be determined by the average of what every OTHER player thinks they are. For instance, instead of asking a player how likely they are to be able to climb over an 8 foot wall, I'll ask all the other players how likely they think it is. I'm doing this because i have one player that I would call 'extremely overoptimistic' in his views of his own abilities.

[Grathr]

I havent played any paper and pencil roleplaying games, but that sounds like a lot of fun.


Sent from a device made from star dust using tapatalk

[pfrsantos]

Great tradition! There's always a munchkin in every party, there's also lots of ways to balance things. The monsters may be drawn to him "just 'cause", equipment malfunctions when he handles it "just 'cause", ASO...

[ducttapetech]

Love RPGs. I have played a lot of them. Good times.

Nate

[Etherealicer]

I love RPG

I highly recommend to have them be hugely successful in the beginning, that will make them paranoid
Actually, I found it useful to draw from Paranoia (the game) for horror one shots. Horror and Paranoia mix so well.

Please, proceed directly to your nearest available Termination Booth

[Toolslinger]

I usually run the game for our group, and every year, we have a Halloween One-shot game. This started from a tradition years back in another gaming group I was in, where each scenario, the players would be playing themselves in some horror scenario.

Glad I'm not the only one .

I've been running a pen and paper RPG for 16+ years now. Still have one original player in the group. We too have Halloween one-shots. I started them 5 years ago just for fun and it's stuck. (We also do Christmas ones and they tend to be pretty wacky.) All of the ones I've run have been Zombie Survival type games with the players playing themselves (modified World of Darkness rules). There's nothing like the satisfaction of running a horror session and everyone getting into the mood of the game. I made one of my player's jump so bad just by looking past her shoulder like there was something behind her (she had her back to a window).

This year's is going to be good. I've even got a new player who's never experienced one before.

to a fellow DM/GM

[ironraven]

d20 Modern?

I'm a GURPS fan- I only need a couple of D6s, and if I can't think of anything when it is my turn, grab two or three random source books and put them together. But some combos are better than others- Bunnies & Burrows, Fantasy and Cthulu works great for Halloween. Open it up with the Mouse King's head Ranger, Grassy, stumbling in, quite out of his mind...

[gregozedobe]

Every year in the past, I've let players write their own stats. This year, I'm going to have player stats be determined by the average of what every OTHER player thinks they are. For instance, instead of asking a player how likely they are to be able to climb over an 8 foot wall, I'll ask all the other players how likely they think it is. I'm doing this because i have one player that I would call 'extremely overoptimistic' in his views of his own abilities.

Maybe you should introduce a new rule and tell everyone (before they write their own stats) that "selected" players may be required to demonstrate their actual ability to do what they claim they can do, and then make sure the offender is "selected" 

[Lynn LeFey]

We've had those sorts of instances before, where I've called him out to demonstrate his various assumed abilities.

For instance, he has no upper body strength, whereas I'm built like a grizzly bear, and he would frequently say how he could perform this or that feat of strength. Chin-ups being one example. So, we did chin ups. Or, more accurately, >I< did chin-ups, and he couldn't. Not one. I can still squeeze out about 10. Don't get me wrong, I'm struggling like crazy by the last few.

Doesn't matter though. Demonstrating reality to him doesn't change his vie about his own awesomeness. So, I think the 'statted by others' will work best.

[Dragon Lord]

You can always roll a dice to see if its possible to him to perform X activity.

I love RPG and I can't play since University... it's sad.