Demonic Toys

[Comte]

A little homage to a pleasent little scary movie series in the subject, line alrighty then.  Ahem its been awhile since I've posted something here.  Heck its been awhile since anyone has posted something here.  This makes me sad.  However, unlike most things I can control this by putting some stuff up.  Of course the only things I could come up with was new ways to make the players lives misrable in the form of monsters.  Yes I am aware that there is a sticky up for new monsters already but thouse are only for final drafts...a handy gms tool if you will.  What I have here is a rough horrible draft that could use imput and improving before making its way to the holy sticky.  Alrighty then here we go.  Also it is 2:30 in the morning I and I don't want to type it all at the same time anyway.  So I can do it here in a series of installments before kicking it up to the holy sticky.

Toys Gone Bad:

Why:  This is a good question, this why thing.  So to answer it I raped a perfectly good fairy tale!  Here we go

Long long ago a freindly toy maker named Geppeto used to live on the outskirts of a fairly large town.  He was a toymaker by trade, and although he was a well liked and freindly man he never did get married or have any children.  Which is a shame because Geppeto was a man who loved children.  Despite the fact that he was one of the greatest toymakers within a hundred miles he was always poor, this is because he often gave away he toys for free to homeless children.  When he did make people pay it was only enough to got more materials and food.  Time passed and as thouse children grew up Geppeto grew older, eventualy he grew to old to work.  That was alright because the greatful people who he gave toys to when they were little gave him everything he needed, so that he could live out his old age in a manner that was much more comfortable than most of the rest of his life.  His wits started to slip like old people's wits tend to do, and one day he went through the town proclaiming that one of his toys had come to life, he named him Pinocchio.  The towns people smiled at the old man and let him live on in his delusion.  He had been alone for so long, it seemed nice that he was finnaly happy.  Weeks passed and more of his creations came alive, and children started to vanish.  It was just the homeless kids at first but then others who were late for dinner...never came at all.  A couple of the new comers to the city instantly blamed Geppeto, but most of the town still remebered his kindness twords them when they were children and the newcomers were ignored.  Time kept passing and children kept dissapearing, again the newcomers spoke and this time people started to listen.  A mob formed, they stormed to Geppeto's house both praying he was innocent but afraid of what they would find.  What they did find was a scene of horror beyond compare.  They found the missing children.  Some of them had screws put into all thier joints with rope attached so they were like a horrible puppet.  Some of the children had thier skin flayed off then painted over, some now had marbles for eyes, almost none of them had tounges.  Geppeto couldn't handle the crying.  As for Geppeto there was no trace of him anywhere.  The children that could be saved were, and the rest were given mercy.  As for Geppeto he was no where to be found.  Over the next few years children from that paticular town and many others would mysteriously vanish never to be seen again.  The country side lived in fear, storys were told of the insane toy maker who roamed the country side for decades, the beleife magic took hold...and you can figgure the rest.

Okay!  Well that the first part...tomarrowish I'll type up some more specific stuff as to what Geppeto is doing now in closet land and what his little slice of hell is like.  

Then I am going to type up how to work the tory in the games including special powers and propertys...

then I was gonna give some special mention to famouse toys over the years who have betrayed children

possibly a few game session layouts involving toys

Alright thats it, you can start your commenting whenever.

[Comte]

Good morning its time for another caffinee induced installment of the Geppeto project.  This installment will be about the area surrounding Geppeto's cottage in closet land.  It will also cover the area itself.  I know I said I would do Geppeto himself tonight but I found it easyer to do the surroundings before the man.  Also by doing the surroundings I found even more things to add to the to do list.  Weee! At this rate I'll be busy for weeks.  Well enough waffling off to Geppeto's relm.

Okay Geppeto, due to the legends that were told about him for years upon years has earned himself a little slice of closet land.  Its possition shifts from  place to place seemingly at random, sometimes its in the kingdom of greed, sometimes envy, sometimes pride, and for awhile gluttony.  In  short Geppetos area seems to get around.  Coming upon Geppeto's relm it looks as if the players are about to enter into a deep dark horrible forest.  As the players get closer they see that the trees are so densly packed together, and the underbrush is so thick that it is a stuggle just to find a way in.  Of course *cough cough* just about anything bigger than the children won't be able to get in at all.  

Once they are through the outer barrier the forest takes on either one of two roles:

Noodle Salad~  When the forest is in noodle salad mode think...fondest childhood memories of the forest glossed over by the cheerfulness of disney, with an added veil of nostalgia on top of that.  The leaves are overly green, the ground is soft and covered in dry leaves, there are no bugs anywhere.  There are pleantaful amounts of rasberry, blue berry, and even strawberry bushes.  There are no prickerbushes or even a sense of forboding.  All thoughout the forest there are lots of deer, bunnies, squirrles and other cute woodland things.  In short it is a place where you would go with your family and generate some of the fondest memories of childhood.  Mine happens to involve noodlesalad hence the name.  You might also observe that this is very uncloset land like.  That is how it should read and this should be emphasized hence the horrible word choises I've been making the last few sentenses.  Anyway this is what the forest is like when Geppeto is happy.  Geppeto is happy during the breif period of when he has a child with him, and that child dies.  Now then just because everything looks like you should be sitting on a blanket eating noodle salad dosn't mean you should be.  The broken toys wander the forest during noodle salad mode.  NOTE: This is something I though of as I was writing this earlyer today.  The broken toys are the ones Geppeto made out of children...you know in the story where he would put nails into thier knees and stuff.  Thier specifics have been added to the to do list  
Sans-Noodle Salad~  When Geppeto is unhappy i.e. alone the forest looks like somehting that should be in closest land.  It is the forest of your nightmares, you know the type misty, wet, full of thorn bushes, scary sounds, dark, lots of glowing little eyes, bugs everywhere and dead cute fury animals.  This is how the forset tends to be the majority of the time because even the strongest of children can't stand up to geppeto's well meaning affection for very long.  It is during this mode that the evil toys roam the land looking for children to bring back to Geppeto so the forest will go back to Noodle salad mode because their maker and father will be happy again.  Yay for irony all his life he wanted his toys to come to life, now they are and bringing him children and he dosn't realize it!  I just thought of that...and to think this was my favorite fairy tale as a kid.

Geppeto's Cottage:  Geppeto's cottage looks either like a happy little woodland hut in a small clearing with smoke puffing cheefuly fromt he chimney, or a run down ramshakle place that beltches thick clouds of black smoke.  No matter which mode the forst is in the interior of the hut is always the same.  As for the actual layout...things are always shifing themselves around so there is no fixed layout (its a cop out! so I don't have to do a map!).  Seriously though...its the way my closet land works.  ANYWAY there are a few spefic rooms of notein the cottage.  Also the cottage is much much bigger on the inside than it is on the out.

THe Toy Room:  Geppeto is still a toymaker, in his free time he still makes toys and this is where they are all stored.  Of course the toys he makes are infused with the pure evil of closet land and they come to life...but hey every lion has to have a den.  This is the one for the evil toys.  In noodle salad mode this is an exceedingly bad place to stumble into, they toys would quickly overwhelm the children and drag them into the dungeon...or even rip them to peices.  In sans-nodle salad mode things the room is a little emptyer because they are out hunting.  The room itself is massive, the walls are so high that they streach out of sight, the roof obscured in darkness.  The walls and floor space are lined with shelves all cramed with toys.  Toys of every shape size and variety from pickup sticks and marbles to GI JOE playsets Geppeto has made it all and they all end up here.  Generaly this room is grey and unpleasent, he makes the toy...it dosn't come alive...he sticks it in here and it is forgotten about...then closet land takes over.  So only some of the toys will come to life at any one time.  Also covering the floor is boxes, hundreds of them all filled with toys or sometimes a captured child as the toy room also makes for a handy dungeon.

The Work Room:  The work room is a den of horrors.  Scatted all about the room are half built toys, dolls half carved, figgures half made you get the idea.  THe room is lit by a gigantic fire place that lines one of the walls.  There is also a woodburning stove in the room which is where he puts some of his more misfortunate mistakes.  Also amongst the scattered halfbuilt toys are tools...some covered in blood some not.  These tools can make for some handy improvised weapons.  Bleh I'm out of energy.  It seems good enough.  For the rest of the shak you can throw in random rooms like wierd closets, a kitchen,  abandoned workshops filled with bodies, and whatever other horrible things you can think of.

Alright lets see here time to redo the to do list:

Broken Toys
Evil Toys
Toy Pit
Geppeto himself
famouse toys
perhaps revisit this section
thats all for now

[Comte]

nothing new tonight, I have a literature midterm do tomarrow.  Just decided to let you know I didn't forget about this or that I'm giving up.  To be perfectly honest with all of you I am putting off wiring the essay because I'm not sure how to writer the last little bit.

[Jason L Blair]

This is some really twisted stuff, but it's very fitting for a darker-themed Little Fears game. I'm looking forward to the rest, Comte.

[Ron Edwards]

Comte,

Are you familiar with the role-playing game Puppetland? That's some neat stuff, and your idea strikes me that a bit of a crossover could be possible when playing Little Fears.

Best,
Ron

[Comte]

Well a variety of stupid things are going on.  So I'm going to add some more of this.  

Role Playing Geppeto:

Description:  When Geppeto has a new toy then he looks like a happy old man.  He has warm freindly green eyes that twinkle with merryment, he's always smiling and quick to laugh at the antics of children.  His hair and moustash is bushy and white, offsetting his suntanned skin in an almost dramatic way.  He is the very essence of pleasently plump, that is to say he is in that comforable region in where he has just enough fat on him to make his lap the most comfortable place in the universe but not to a point where he looks horribly obese or fat.  He dresses in simple brown cloths and is always wearing an aprin in which he keeps several tools of the trade which he uses to make his toys.  He goes through great lengths to ensure that his cloths are always clean.  Of course he only looks like this from the time he has a new toy and that child dies.  Once that child dies his physical form begins to change over the course of 24 hours at which time the change will be compleate.  He will start to loose weight at a dramatic pace untill he is nothing but a rail, his hair will thin out and become scraggly.  The tanned skin will fade away leaving massive amounts of liverspots and vericose veins.  His comforting voice will gain a higher pitch and will start to frequently crack, along with that his nails will grow and sharpen making for handy weapons.  Normaly he stands tall and straight but by the end of the transformation his form will be bent and twisted, his eyes bloodshot.  He is almost unrecognizable from one form to the next.  As soon as he has a new toy he instanteneously changes back into his happy plump form.  

Personality:
In life Geppeto is a nice kindly old man who honetly loves to make people, especialy children happy.  It is something he spent his whole life doing and all he asked for in return is some company and freindship.  He got his wish after he went insane.  Once again we should all be careful for what we wish for.  Anyway, Geppeto's transition into Closetland has left his core personality strangly unchanged...it just enhanced certain aspects of it.  So while Geppeto has a new toy he will act much like he did in life.  He will be freindly and helpful to any children he should discover wandering his woods.  He will be quick to offer them a toy that he has made, and will go so far as to give them food, shelter, rest, and he'll patch up any injury's they might have.  His presense is naturaly calming and the children shouldn't feel threatend by him.  Of course when they go back to his workshop and see what he's done th some poor kid in order to make his latest toy...they will realize all is horribly wrong.  Of course Geppeto will write off thier reaction as just being afraid of a toy coming to life and talking to him.  After all to Geppeto a new toy is a finely crafted peice of wood come to life, not a child in increadble pain.  Anybody who continualy reminds Geppeto that his new toy is actualy a child will be delt with.  By that Geppeto's face will darken preceptivly, his eyes will go bloodshot and in a swift single motion he will deal with the troublesome child.  Now Geppeto dosn't kill anyone outright ever, it is against his nature.  So if the child keeps talking about something he dosn't want to hear Geppeto will swiftly remove his tounge and replace it with something that will prevent him from making noise afterwards.  He may also cut off hands, feet, or eyes.  When he replaces the wound with a part of a toy it instantly cauterises and the child suffers no real damage other than the pain and the shock of it.  Geppeto is capable of moveing at near lightning speed when his happyness is concerned.  ONce the troublesom chold has been delt with he goes back to his usual cheerful self as if nothing out of the ordinary has happened.  Geppeto's happyness is his highest priority, and he will do whatever is nessisary to maintain it.  However, for whatever reason he will do nothing to sustain it.  He dose not horde children in any part of his workshop, children are free to come and go as they choose.  Of course any attempts to resque his new toy will be frowned upon.  Basicly as long as he has a new toy he is utterly content and perfectly willing to entertain visitors.  As long as the players can stomach having tea with someone who is on thier way to being a broken toy then so bit it.

Now once Geppeto's new toy becomes broken...ie the kid dies his mental state undergoes a change much akin to his physical one.  Like his physical one it takes a full 24 hours for it to full take hold of him.  At first Geppeto will be depressed, despondent, sad, melencoly, and other repetative words.  His pretensity twords violence will increase dramaticly.  Before he had a great deal of pacience with any of his visitors, as the day passes it gets noticbly shorter, and his violent rages become more frequent.  After about 12 hours go by he becomes bitter and angry twords the world.  He will also start to supect nearly everything of breaking his new toy.  The idea that it might of been his fault is anthenema to him.  Closer to the end he will commit acts of voilence without warning than profusely appoligose then commit another act of voilence because he was forced to apoligise.  Finnaly the cheery old man will be compleatly gone and the need for a replacment toy will compleatly overwhelm and consume him to the point where it blots everything out including the pain he is causing his newest victem.  Then the cycle starts all over again!

[Comte]

Erm well i am in a rather embarassing predicament.  I didn't notice that both Jason and Ron had nice things to say about this and I didn't thank them.  I'll do that now.

Thankyou for your kind words and encouragement.

Well now that, thats done on with the broken toys.

The Broken Toys:  
Description: The broken toys are what becomes of the children who have spent to long in Geppto's care.  The first thing to note is that in order to become a broken toy you must be dead.  The skin of the children will be ashen, thier eyes dulled over, and they will always have the faint smell of decay around them.  Other than this obviously dead appearence, there is really nothing that unites themy physicaly.  Geppeto accepts kids from all over the world, and of all ages.  Some of the broken toys have been around for days, others for centuries as a result looks, style of clothing, acents, and even language should represent this.  Geppeto, when making a new toy for himslef, dose a wide variety of things to the children.  To some he nails masks to thier faces and dresses them like dolls; other times he makes grotesque stuffed animals, the fur sewn directly into the childs skin; some times he covers them in a type of plasic turning them in to giant action figgures; and finnaly there is the old classic of turning them into puppets, wooden screws jammed into thier joints with a special thread attached that only Geppeto can undo.  Some of the children have sustained greviouse wounds that resulted in thier death, these wounds still hang open as Broken Toys.  Remeber the Geppeto can replace parts of children without hindering thier movements...it is still very painful for them though.  So when describing broken toys try to remember to take thier variety into account.  The movements of the broken toys are stiff almost zombie like, as death has stiffened up thier joints.  Sometimes they travel alone, othertimes they ban together for protection and company.  Usualy they are found in groups no greater than 12.  It is impossible to truely kill a broken toy, the closest anything can come is simply smashing the body to bits.  However, it will just reform 24 hours latter.  

Psychologicaly the broken toys fit a whole spectrum of diffrent personalities and traits.  Some roam closet land exploring all of its nooks and secrets, some even make it up to the real world.  Most of them stay in Geppeto's forest or in the area surrounding it.  Many of the broken topys have been driven insane by thier ordeal.  The pain at the hands of Geppeto, his refusal to see the pain, and the possible betrayal of a much loved toy were all to much for them.  Now they roam closet land alone or in packs hunting down and causing pain to whatever they come across be it child or monster.  Other broken toys (BTs from here on out) try to curry favor from Geppeto.  Their reasons for doing this are varied and usualy irrational.  Sometimes they beleive that Geppeto can bring them back to life and return them to earth, others have been just plain warped by the demonic toys.  Eitherway Geppeto will just compleatly ignore thier presense feeding thier rage and anger even more.  Some of the broken toys will be helpful twords any children that they encounter.  They will fight to save them from any monsters, lead them to safty, even attempt to help them escape closet land.  Still others attempt to wage war against the demonic toys.  It is this last group that I think can lead to some interesting situations.  After all part of war could be denying the demonic toys new children for Geppeto by killing any who enter the forest.  Other times they could use the children to do something in return for thier lives, and possibly a way out of closet land.  Of all the groups these broken toys are the ones most likely to enter into the real world to stop a demonic toy from doing its work.  Many times these groups will conflict with one another and there might even be conflicts within a group of broken toys as how to handle any new children that they come across.  It is a generaly held beleife amongst the broken toys that if someone could show Geppeto that what he is doing is harmful to the world that all the demonic toys would die, thier souls could rest, and so could his.  The problem with this is the the broken toys are dead and as such can't generate beleif magic.  Still if they got enough children to beleive...

Stats:  Most monsters don't have stats I know.  In fact I agree entirely with the idea behind the monsters not having stats.  However, since the broken toys have physical bodys, and can help the players out I have found it is conveient as such to hand them a stat line.  An easy way to do this is to derive thier stats like you would for a PC, double the muscle and halve the feet stats.  This represents thier increased strength and decreased speed on acount of being dead and all.  Otherwise the broken toy retains all knowlage, and skills that it had in life.

[Comte]

Btw I didn't forget about this.  First I decided to take some time off and see if I could chase down that puppet land game that ron mentioned.  It was a traumatic failure but thats alright I'll get it someday.  Then I found out my dad randomly bought a copy of Adobe pagemaker at a recent computer show.  So I have been learning how to use that and format it up.  So fairly soon I should have a cleaned up version of all of this in a conveinet .pdf format.

[6inTruder]

http://www.johntynes.com/rl_puppetland.html

It's not the super-keen print version, but still has all the prevelant info.

[Jan_Schattling]

Ok. This Threat started May but i think its never to latr to tell someone that he has done a very good job!

I think I will use geppeto in one of my next games.

Jan

[Comte]

Thanks for the compliment!  If you do be sure to post how it went, I would like to know how it goes.  At one point I was getting it all cleaned up and organized for a .pdf even some art.  But then the compy crashed and nothing but pain followed.  Perhaps once I get some of my bigger projects out of the way I'll finnish it all up and try prettifying it again.  

Same witht he sandman stuff which pretty much only excists on paper at the moment.