Untitled -- A modern horror setting

[S.Lonergan]

Feedback please.. I had this idea as i was walking the dog.. im not sure if its worth developing further... but... let me know what you think... Its really just bare bones at the moment.. [EDIT : This might be the right idea for my paranoaish thread, who knows]

Untitled -- A modern horror setting

Everything evolves, it's one of the underlying principles of nature. Reality evolves as well. In the beginning just after the big bang, reality was simple, there were no complex physical laws. Just nothingness. Then after what seemed like a lifetime, reality started to evolve, slowly at first, but slowly becoming faster. The laws of time and space slowly formed and shaped. Slowly matter was formed and shaped, star systems, life forms, all came and went as reality changed. Then homo sapiens were created, the only species so far capable of adapting as reality changed so quickly. They suffered only minor setbacks with the affects of gravity,
Eventually reality stopped shifting, and the world is as it is today.
Unfortunately, our reality, as we see it is fine. But, the homo sapiens reality was as you might say "The reality with the birth defect", Reality begun to change again in 1976, slowly, very slowly. Small things at first , like de ja vu, or psychic readers.
Then in 1984 it came to a head, paranormal investigations received a gush of poltergeist and ghost calls. In the 1990's, reality seems to be fine, for the billions who haven't experienced its defect. But there were those, who had lived through the nightmare of a changing reality, many became insane.

The current year is 2004, and realities evolution has become more sick and twisted than ever. Our realities inhabitants have started to change as well. People have become longer, skinnier, paler and eviler. Everyday life is impossible without one person being clubbed, killed or eaten. Stalkers roamed the streets, and the homeless are now but a myth, they have long since been consumed by the stalkers. Realities laws have become weaker as well, psychic's have been rumored of, but nothing is solid. Government is corrupt as always, but is struggling against the stalkers. No one dares venture outside their homes after dark and you never know when reality will shift, changing and creating something new and twisted.

[Tim Gray]

"Everything is very nasty. And unpredictable. As long as it's nasty." What's next? What happens in the setting, and what can PCs do? It's very in-your-face horror rather than uncovering things hidden under the familiar world. It could turn into a Doom RPG.

[S.Lonergan]

It could yes... you are completley correct... I know of one Doom RPG already actually...:)

What happens in the setting is entirely up to the GM, as I believe it is in every RPG...

Im trying to provide elements of both in your face horror and discovering things under a familiar world rpg...

Only few have experienced the realities defects... and the changes are few and far between.... even then they are small things... and every 6 or so years, a slightly bigger one... what the changes are are completley up to the GM, but I want to focus more on dark and twisted horror.... Where the PC's play normal people, who are suddenly thrust into this almost alternate world when they lose their innocence and experience the realities changes... How they react is up to them.. but I have a scenario in my head already that I might throw at my group.. without telling them anything about the game world or system....!

Thanks for your feedback

- Seamus

[S.Lonergan]

I have decided to remove the stalkers all together.. the only real difference between the Untitled setting and our world now is that its two years in the future and reality is evolving. I find its more horrory without the stalkers.. they seem to for the lack of a better word.. Standard...?

[Cynthia Celeste Miller]

It all sounds like a great start.  But I have to emphasize the word "start".  I think what the setting needs is some manner of focus.  Something that gives the PCs a jumping-on point.  Sure, you could just say that the PCs are merely everyday people who happen to get caught up in the ever-changing reality, but that would be pretty standard and wouldn't do much to inspire players IMO.

As it stands now, you made no mention of how the PCs are brought about.  Perhaps a small portion of the human race has been born with an innate ability to sense the reality-shifts and must fight to preserve everything.  Or maybe the government has set up an organization to combat the Stalkers and keep reality from shifting further.  Better yet, use BOTH of the above options.

An intriguing hook can really solidify a cool concept and draw players (and GMs) into the setting.  

I hope this helps you out.

[Jasper]

Following up on that government agency idea, how about some technology that can delay or predict the reality shifts.  It could be bulky, prone to failure, or limited in use by a battery or something -- and make it high tech so that there aren't very many.  This might give more stability than you want I guess, but I find that if players aren't grounded at least a little, they won't be happy.  If nothing like this exists, they can't even have a permanent base of operations.  

On the other hand, if they do have no base, and are working for the govt. it would mean that they'd have to travel a lot.  Might be good impetus for change -- and it would set them apart even more because ordinary people who they'd have to encounter would be glad to see some people with uniforms and big guns.

[Walt Freitag]

I suggest that the player-characters are people who, unlike everyone else, remember how things used to be after a shift, and who also have some limited power over the effects of a shift. The limitations of this power force them to decide what is most important to keep, which can become the Premise of the game.

I'm curious about why the 2004 date. Since you have a whole alternate history going back to 1984, and a world distinctly different from present day reality, why not present day? What difference do those two years make? Or are you just allowing for two years to finish writing the game? :-)

- Walt

[S.Lonergan]

Hmm... You've all shown some vaild points here. and now that it comes to it, im really not sure how this is going to work out. I haven't actually written anything down yet. So yeah. I think, perhaps...
and let me know what you think of this.

The PC's are some form of psychics who have limited control over the shifts, and remember what it used to be like. Whether I should keep the stalkers as realistic intelligent beings, or mindless slobbering beasts or not at all, im not sure.

I stuck the year forward 2 years. Not sure why. I just did. :)

2 years to write the game is probably enough... probably

[S.Lonergan]

http://jimandmonkey.iwarp.com/untitled_page.htm

Its a quick copy of what i've written so far.. not much.. but some idea as to how it is... tell me what you like, dont like, think should be changed etc.....

- Seamus

[Christoffer Lernö]

What's setting your game apart from others? Why not just run it as a trimmed down Cthulhu game? Not to mention I could whip up a game like that in Kult in about 1 second.

What's the essence of it?

The only line which strikes a chord in me would be "People have become longer, skinnier, paler and eviler".

[S.Lonergan]

Did you read the document i just posted to my website??

http://jimandmonkey.iwarp.com/untitled_page.htm

its what i've written so far, in a game format.... Its substantially more than whats written at the top of this thread...

[Christoffer Lernö]

That's exactly what I did before writing that comment. In fact I thought your initial presentation of it here was more distinct in feeling than the PDF.

[S.Lonergan]

in what ways?

What would you see changed?

[Christoffer Lernö]

I just feel like: "err, what is it supposed to be about?"

First of all, is the focus on the characters or the setting or the plot of the adventure the GM is making?

They would all turn out very differently. Not to mention if you make it a Narrativist game.

Look at Vampire. With the setup "You are vampires" you could play it in a lot of different ways, but WW endorsed one way, namely "exploration of setting". So consequently there was a million sourcebooks and so on. I guess you could run it as "exploration of situation" as well. Anyway, it's about intrigue in this society which exists parallell with the humans yadda yadda. That's the game they made.

It make for a quite different feeling from say "exploration of character". Incidentally, when I bought Vampire when it first came out I was sure it was going to be "exploration of character". When I read about the characters that came with the first adventure of the book I though: "What kind of sh*t is this, how the h*ll am I supposed to use this?". So I threw all that out and ran a few exploration of character stories and had some fun with that.

I never understood how anyone in their right mind could want to play Vampire the way they intended it. But that a personal opinion.

The point is (hmm do I really have one?) that depending on how you intend the game to be played you either presented enough of the background or not anywhere near enough.

What I want to know: how were you thinking people would play it? (Let's ignore the fact that a game can be played a lot of different ways with enough patience and sacrifice)

[S.Lonergan]

The way I intend it to be played is as "Exploration of setting" with the focus on mostly the setting and GM's plot, I realise that there is nowhere near enough background to play it like that.... But im truly having trouble expanding it. I always have problems expanding a setting to more than a page, how do you suggest I expand it? its pretty much like modern today.. in terms of technology... But the world is kind of different.. in the constant black clouds and rain, and the Daemons, and the whole psychic thing...

In essence what im saying is...

I cant develop backgrounds well....

I know that I should focus greatly on the setting, but im not sure how!

Thanks, you've helped me a lot already..

- Seamus