I was thinking for some time about creating a vampire game that really is horrifying--but fun to play. Let's face it, most vampire games just aren't scary. I mean, how scary is some effeminate, homoerotic, emo--thoroughly Ann Rice inspired--vampire who's worried about becoming a monster, anyway? Is that even fun to play?
I guess that could be scary and fun for some people, but I think it's pretty lame all around.
And the others are just too fantastical. Or they're set in a gothic nightmare world, etc. Or, at least that's what it seems to someone who's not going to spend all his money looking at all that's out there, vampire-wise.
However, I want to take the whole "personal horror" to a new--or at least different level. What I propose is that the game is played something like a tasteless joke where the players are asked to play their characters in ways that are thoroughly immoral and heinous in order to get the blood the characters' need. But it's got to be a lot of fun--and frightening if the gameplay were to be written out. But it like a tasteless joke could also work against creating a horror atmoshphere. But, then again, many horror movies have been made like that.
This post is inspired by by a post from the Combat Round thread, and my subsequent rant:
Quote:
Originally Posted by sladethesniper View Post
The problem with RPG's is that the "baseline" for "most" characters tends to be a highly trained, well armed, sociopath...think about it...there are a lot of games where characters are basically racially motivated mass murderers that specialize in home invasion...
Funny thing is that I was debating on creating a vampire rpg based on the characters acting along those lines (no emos). However, I believe that it could be unplayable. But, then again, somebody did create a game about sociopathic assassins that also could specialize in home invasion and theft of their victims:
AssassinX - The 24hour RPG of Bloody Murder
I wonder how many people do play it for a one shot--or even a campaign. And there's a game called Dog Town where the PCs are all criminals:
Dog Town: Core Rules
I don't care what White Wolf publishing or Ann Rice says, vampires are sociopathic mass murderers who specialize in home invasion! At least if you want your vampires to be scary. And I've long thought that the way most PCs are played in rpgs, they would make great vampires in a modern day setting. After all, you see vampires in modern day movies wearing nice modern day clothes, or even living in a modern day house...where do they get the money from?
I guess what I'm trying to get at is that I'm thinking about a game that would have the characters acting like the typical adventuring characters of any rpg. But have them be vampires who slaughter and steal from and do battle with people in a modern setting (or a "real world" historical setting). And they must do it in a way that mortal society doesn't find out about them. Mostly using guile, but if you want to play a character that just charges right in, you can do that, too. It seems like this game would be best for one-shots.
This is just something that's been bouncing around in my head for awhile, and I'd like to know if I'm onto some kind of good idea (or if this is a bad idea) and if there are any good suggestions for it? You can probably tell by this post that my ideas are a bit disjointed at this point about it.
I've watched two recent vampire movies that inspired me:
Amazon.com: 30 Days of Night: Josh Hartnett,Craig Hall,Melissa George: Movies & TV
Amazon.com: Mrs. Amworth: Magenta Brooks,Christy Sullivan,Daniel Ross,Jim Nalitz,Ben Murrie,Frank Sciurba: Movies & TV
And one oldie, but goodie:
Amazon.com: The Norliss Tapes: Roy Thinnes,Don Porter,Angie Dickinson,Claude Akins,Michele Carey,Vonetta McGee,Hurd Hatfield,Bryan O'Byrne,Ed Gilbert,Robert Mandan,Jane Dulo,Bob Schott,George DiCenzo,Patrick M. Wright,Nick Dimitri,Stanley Adams,Dan C
A couple of stories I've recently read that inspired me:
http://www.horrormasters.com/Text/a0223.pdf This is the short story that the movie Mrs. Amworth is based on but the movie is very different in many ways than this story.
And:
http://www.horrormasters.com/Text/a0322.pdf
As well as:
The Vampyre, by John Polidori
I'm inspired by this story telling game:
shock: social science fiction
But I want it to be a regular tabletop game using the BRP system.
I suspect that if done right the game could be really good at using ethical issues as a theme.
Anyway, I'm going to post this and hopefully your posts will help me hammer out what I really want to accomplish with this.
