A J-Horror inspired game

[MartiniPhilosopher]

Greetings All!

I am attempting to create a one-page based game after getting inspired by some Japanese horror movies.

So far I have the following:

The players are the spirits which are haunting the world. They have a Motivation (Vengeance, Justice, or Message) which is the why of why they are still here. This choice is key in how the character get rewarded. If they are able to keep to their Motivation then they get more points back (more on that in a minute) when scarring someone. Characters also have powers. These are used to inspire the horror. The short list includes such things as illusions, possession, manifestation, telekinesis, animation, and silence. Each one would do different things like manifestation is being able to take on a physical form for a short amount of time and animation would be taking control of things like paper or a car and controlling what it does. I have been attempting to keep it pretty open so as to allow the players to be really inventive with what they do. The players are allowed to choose three from the list and then assign each a score from a pool of ten points.

The last part are the Fear Points. Fear points are spent when the characters activate a power. They are regained when they have been successful in creating fear in their victims. It doesn't have to be a lot of fear, just a little will do. The characters start out with 10 Fear Points.

The GM also has a part to play in the role of the Victims as well as setting up the area that is being haunted.

Victims have three traits. Science, Faith, and Superstition. These are also assigned scores from a pool of 10 points. They also have a Horror Meter and a Flight Score. The Horror Meter is how terrified the Victim is so far and the Flight Score is the point at which the Victim will attempt to run away from the haunting situation. When the Victim's Horror Meter reaches the Flight Score the GM has several options. They can just make the Victim run away into another room or building, or they can have the Victim attempt to get their friends to leave with them, or so forth. Once they have taken that action, then the Horror Meter gets reset. The first time the HM is reset it is to half of the Flight Score. Each additional time after that, it is reset to half + (# of resets * 2). So if this is the third time a HM has been reset then it is half of the FS + 6.

Play goes like this:

The player decides which of the three powers to use. For this example let's just say its the Animation power to which the player has assigned a score of 4. The player describes how, in front of one of the victims, a sheet of paper origamis itself into a shape of a dagger. To use this power, the character must have at least 4 Fear Points. The GM then decides which trait of the Victim applies. The decision relies on what the player is doing as well as where the haunting is taking place. Since the paper folding itself is neither very religious in nature nor is there a lot of superstitions around paper doing such things then science is the last choice. The GM has assigned the Victim a score of 3 for science.

Resolution now takes place. The player and GM both roll a number of d6s equal to their scores. Both total up their dice. If the player has the higher total then they have truly inspired some fear in the Victim. If it is the GM, then the Victim is able to delude themselves into believing they did not just witness the paper folding itself.

If the player had the higher total three things happen. The first is that the GM scores the horror attempt on a 1 to 3 scale. The higher, the more scary the scene was. Next, that score gets added to the Victim's Horror Meter. Last the character gets a number of Horror Points equal to the Victim's current HM.

If the GM had the higher total then the follow happens. The Victim's HM goes down by one since they have talked themselves into not believing their eyes. The character is out those points they spent and must find some other way to frighten the Victim.

The players may also spend Fear Points to modify a roll. They can exchange 1 FP for a re-roll of any one die. They can spend 2 FP to change any one die into a 6. And they can spend 3 FP to take over narration from the GM and get a Victim into a more favorable situation.

Play goes on until all of the Victims have left the haunting area (or have died from fright) or the character have run out of Fear Points.

[Simons]

Don't think I've ever seen a japanese horror movie, but I likete idea.  Seems cool.  It also kind of sounds like it needs playtesting.  Namely, I'm reading that and have uncertainties about a few things: is the arithmetic too complicated?  are all of the character's the same?  also, wouldn't a highly scientific mind make you more likely to be spooked by physically impossible ghostly actions, and a religious bent more likely to be scared by satanic acts (or, is that how it works, and I just misunderstood it)?  Do characters and situations change a lot from game to game?  Is that the right number of fear points, and do they regenerate at a reasonable rate?

I guess these things are not necissarily a problem, but might be after a few test games. 

So can every ghost use any power, or do they need to choose?  What happens if you run out of fear points (like, is there a way to die)?  Also, since I assume this is a multi-player game, do the ghosts work together, or compete to be the most frightening?

Simon

[MartiniPhilosopher]

I don't disagree that it could use some playtesting. I'm hoping to get a group together this weekend to do just that.

You understand the spooking system just fine. The idea behind the Victim rolling their Science, Faith, or Superstition is that the Victim is attempting to figure out a way to ignore whatever it was they just saw. A sort of willful cognitive dissidence. So if it was something physically improbable, like a chair levitating in the middle of a room, then the Victim is going to try and talk themselves into having some non-supernatural reason for it. Now if that the chair was levitating while a creepy child's laughter was heard -- that is scary -- and is the sort of thing I'm trying to encourage with these rules.

Since this is supposed to be a one-page type ruleset, then I imagine that it does change a lot and it really depends on the people you end up playing with. The GM is free to make the haunting take place in an abandoned school or house or church or whatever it is they want to put the players into.

I'm not sure about the number of Fear Points just yet. Needs to be tested.

The players can work together or separately, it really is up to them, but with the rules as they are right now it is more economical for them to start by working together to scare the Victims and build up their FP before attempting to go off alone. If they do run out of FP by failing a lot in early attempts then they are out of the game. The initial amount of points may need to be adjusted upwards if the players get knocked out too early. Then again, the players can choose three powers and nothing says that they have to distribute the rating pool evenly. I can totally see players choosing to make one of the three choices a 5 or 6 and keeping their other powers at a 2 or 3. They can then use the lower rated powers in the early game to build up the Victims' Fear Meter and the bonuses FP use to make sure they get a higher score.

[Osmo Rantala]

This does sound like a really cool idea. So, your inspiration lies in movies like The Ring, The Dark Water (or what was it called now)?

Isn't it kind of... (whats the word now)... drastic (wrong word, I'm sure of it...) to just throw a player out of game if they run out of Fear Points? "Game Over" works well for computer and console games, but I'm not so sure about rpgs.

[MartiniPhilosopher]

I understand the concern about the Fear Points and I'll keep an eye on that in playtesting. Nobody wants to get knocked out of playing in the middle of a fun session, so they may have to be an adjustment to possibly having FP auto-generate N points per turn. But I won't know for certain until it has been played a few times.

It really came together in my mind when I was watching a movie called <a href="http://imdb.com/title/tt0493849/>"Pray"</a> on IFC a while back. It is interesting to note that J-Horror seems to have roots in the old kabuki traditions, which is why the vengeful spirits have the long, strait, unkempt black hair in the movies. Such wigs were used at one time to help the audiences differentiate between the living and the dead in the old plays.