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.

"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.

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

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...?

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.

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.

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

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

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

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".

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...

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.

in what ways?

What would you see changed?

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)

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

Seamus,

I'm reminded of a really good Stephen King short story in which a high-energy physics reaction goes haywire, bringing this weird fog to cover the planet and lots of weird creatures that eat people. A fellow escapes being eaten and the story ends with him heading out into a new, fog-covered, horror-infested world with his kids and dog in the back seat.

Not only is it somewhat similar to your setting, but it ends pretty much where your description ends. We're sort of left with a "Cool, now what?" This is good, since we'll probably pick up the book (or PDF) and read more, but we need to have more.

How to develop that "more"?

I'd start by writing up a scenario for the game. Not only will this help people play the thing (when the time comes), but in doing a scenario, you'll bump into things you need. What kind of technology is available to people? What are the stats of the creatures? What resources can people bring in to help them? And, most importantly, why might the PCs be brought in in the first place? This should give you a decent list of things to resolve for that one scenario, and that should help define the more general areas where information might be needed.

If your focus is on setting or situation you have to decide on different things (I suppose). If it's about running around in this world and kinda discover what's happening, it's more about setting. In that case you probably want to decide how much the characters can affect on their own.

If it's about the plot for the adventure, the players ought to have a big impact on the outcome of the story. If you set a limit on what they can affect you effectively limit the scope of an adventure as well.

Exploring setting, you probably want a lot of background material, but that makes it harder to create stories. Look at vampire.

You have to decide what you want.

jdagna,
I certainly will write up some form of scenario, thankyou for the advice,
Stephen King? I never expected my setting to be likened with a Stephen King story....

Pale Fire,
How much the characters can affect is definitly something i will explore. I want a setting that they can explore, but I also want somewhere where Gm's can create what they want as well and not be too limited. Thats the problem, I definitly want a truckload more background than I currently have....
(all background can be found at http://www.geocities.com/drunk_monkeyau/untitled.htm,
Trouble is.. i dont know what more to add. Technology that is available, How they came to be in some form of "Squad" or "Group" of Daemon fighting good guys im not sure of yet... I was thinking something like , the government just comes one day out of the blue and enlists them or something.... Im not sure.....

I will certainly check out VTM...

- Seamus

Write down a example complete with player and GM dialogue. Something like

Bob: "I pick up the axe, does the corpse move any?"

GM: "No, actually with the head chopped off, it looks like it's going nowhere, and yet... you have a bad feeling"

Rob: "I look outside, do I see that guy who hunted us?"

GM: "Well, the window is a little to dirty to provide a great view. You can't be sure unless you open the door"

Bob: "Don't open the door!!!"

Rob: "Well, a quick peek can't hurt..."

and so on. There are some examples in other threads. (To lazy to give the urls right now)

I will definitly write some examples... im also going to write a section just for the GM

I'm having trouble not seeing a version of Beyond the Supernatural here. That's not a bad thing because I liked that game.

It was just one big monster hunt though. This sounds like it could be better than that.

If the world evolves based upon some outside influence then the PC could fight that.

If the world effects the PCs in a way that they evolve into something twisted then you'd have an interesting concept.

It would be PC vs themselves. You could have a mechanic to track the level to which they're tainted.

After a certain amount of personal change has gone on, then the PCs could change their environment. There is a cost for doing any of this and the consequences are not worth the benefits gained.

Like casting spells in CoC.

I like your idea though.

Doc Midnight

The way I have spell casting figured out is ,
When creating your character, you get one psychic skill, from a random list of 80. Then you can use that sparingly.. But they put the PC's above the average populas.

The Daemons are not so much there to be fought. They are there to try and stop the PC's and continue realities changing. If I linked the Daemons to the evolution of reality, and then made it so that they were the ones that could change it more irraticly, reality would still change slowly though, do you think that may work?

I might also introduce some form of Humanity measure.. where people get lighter or darker, and become warped and twisted if they perform evil deeds....

Does anyone think that may work?

- Thanks for your help Seamus

S.Lonergan wrote:

I might also introduce some form of Humanity measure.. where people get lighter or darker, and become warped and twisted if they perform evil deeds....

I like the idea of randomly generating skills as well.. if it was a choose one skill thing, then there would be one favourite skill that everyone would have...

The humanity idea only came about after someone here mentioned it..

First I tried the link, and got 404.

What I'd do is just make "normal" people characters. Describe what they are like, and how they exist in the current world. And then give them the psychic ability last. In fact, play out the scene in which they get it. Give them the sudden impact of the realization that the world is not what they thought it was a moment ago. That would be a cool way to start out.

Then, I'd go with a tight situation. The PC is contacted by a character who can detect other psychics. That guy gets them in contact with other psychics in the vicinity (PCs). Then the "adventures" begin.

See what I'm angling for? Otherwise you're going to have to do some fancy footwork to get the PCs interacting.

Mike

Mike,
The linked page has disappeared, but if you go to http://jimandmonkey.iwarp.com and then click on Untitled, it has a page on it there...

As for what you suggested, i really like that angle. PC's first discover there ability as children, when they reach puberty, which can be different depending on the person. But to have no characters rolled up, and role play children as they discover their ability. Then explain it, then fast forward to them as adults, and then role their characters.?

They are intirely normal people, the only difference is the psychic skill.

- Seamus

Seamus,

If you're going for an "Exploration of Setting" (and you should read the G/N/S stuff here if you haven't already), one of the ways to write background is to extend what you did at the beginning of this thread. Describe what's different.

Take one thing, the thing that piqued Pale Fire's interest, the statement that People have become longer, skinnier, paler and eviler and do some free writing on this (okay, for those of you keeping score, this is the second time in as many days that I've mentioned this - it's serendipitious baby!).

Essentially, start with the thought "Why are people longer, skinner, paler and eviler?" Then set a timer for ten to fifteen minutes and just write (typing is okay too, but writing with a pen or pencil seems to get the jucies flowing better). Don't stop to edit, and you have to write the whole time. If you've never done free writing before, you'll find your mind resisting with things like "I don't know why", or "Because it sounds cool". That fine, write that down exactly as it comes to you.

After the ten to fifteen minutes, look over what you've written. You'll probably only find one or two things that look promising - ie things that seem to answer the qeustion in a way that seems satisfying to you. Then take those ideas and repeat the process of free writing.

Every time you do this exercie, you'll get better at, and more and more good things will come out of it.

Once you've got a list of ten or twenty or thirty realtively good ideas in this manner, then you have to begin organizing those thoughts.

If you decide to try this, and you have any problems with it, or with organizing the thoughts after you've generated them, bring them back here to the Forge and many people (as you've seen already) would be happy to help.

It'll take quite a bit of time and effort - but if you're willing to give it a try, you should be able to generate enough setting information (in this case rembmer that since the game is set essentially in the real world, only things are a little bit different, your setting information needs to cover those differences in-depth) to support an Exploration of Setting type premise.

Cheers,

Jason

S.Lonergan wrote:
As for what you suggested, i really like that angle. PC's first discover there ability as children, when they reach puberty, which can be different depending on the person. But to have no characters rolled up, and role play children as they discover their ability. Then explain it, then fast forward to them as adults, and then role their characters.?

When i eventually write the GM section, one thing I will definitly suggest strongly, is that individually, prior to the session you play the game, role play the day that each child discovers their power and how reality changes, and then how the government takes them (see www.geocities.com/drunk_monkeyau/untitled.htm for more on that..) ... and some background... adn then fast forward after all the players are done with that..

deadpanbob, i will definitly try that

- Seamus