Professional Documents
Culture Documents
CREDITS
Writing
Andrew Kenrick
Additional Writing
Scott Dorward, Mark Latham, James Mullen, Joe Murphy
Illustration
Paul Bourne
Editing
Malcolm Craig, Scott Dorward, Gregor Hutton, Matt Machell,
Iain McAllister, James Mullen
Playtesting
Ian Ackerman, Dave Ballam, Kevin Barthaud (Mr. Toad), Andy Coles, Mark Dewhurst,
Scott Dorward, Johnathan Ellis, Jez Gray (Jonny Gray’s brother), Sue Lee,
Mark Long, Iain McAllister, Elaine McCourt, Ian McClumpha, Louisa McGuinness,
Seana McGuinness, James Mullen, Matt Nixon, Stephen Plummer, Robin Poole,
Steven Pretlove, Mick Reddick, Mik Reed, Matt Sanderson, Claire Stansfield,
Adrian St. John, Graham Walmsley.
Special Thanks
To the members of the Collective Endeavour for your continued help and support,
to Ron Edwards for championing the first edition of the game, to Scott Dorward
and his big bag of horror movies, and to Ruth for putting up with me while I
wrote the second edition.
Steampower Publishing
www.steampowerpublishing.com
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CONTENTS
Introduction 04
FIVE: GENRE 79
Getting Started 05
Slasher 81
Monster Movie 84
THREE: TENSION 37
Determining Tension 38
SEVEN: SCENARIOS 139
Unhallowed 141
Managing Tension 42
Cold Fusion 151
Dust 160
What’s my Motivation 48
Monstrous Archetypes 50
The Unstoppable Killer 52
APPENDICES 179
Mediography 179
The Vengeful Dead 54
Index 181
The Hunter 56
Character Sheet 185
The Beast Within 58
The Corrupter 60
The Impostor 62
The Puppet Master 64
The Horde 66
The Formless Horror 68
The Thing From Beyond 70
By The Numbers 73
Monstrous Specialisations 73
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INTRODUCTION
Dead of Night is a roleplaying game of campfire tales, slasher movies
and b-movie horror. It is a game of tales told to scare the bejeezus
out of your friends when sleeping out under the clear night sky; of
tales of beasts and monsters and murderous psychopaths; of tales
that might just turn out to be true.
Dead of Night is all about the monsters - the werewolves, the ghosts
and the ghouls. It is meant to scare the players, to make them jump at
their own shadows and the clatter of the dice. It is meant to unsettle
and disturb, to make them think twice before turning off the lights. It
is meant to be light hearted at times, when the horror movie clichés
flow thicker than the blood. Above all, it is meant to be fun!
Terminology
In Dead of Night, the game is ran by a games master (the GM) and
the players play characters within a horror movie. The main threat
comes from the monster. Ten-sided dice (d10s) are used to resolve
actions. Players use (and lose) Survival Points to influence events
and represent setbacks; each time they do so the Tension cranks up
by 1, allowing the GM to pile on the pressure even more. The game
is designed to emulate a horror movie, so survival is not assured.
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GETTING STARTED
A game of Dead of Night is quick and easy to set up, allowing you to
start playing as soon as possible.
Set the Scene: Once you have decided upon your monster, you
need to create a compelling situation in which the story will take
place. This might be as simple as picking an evocative location or
coming up with a premise that demands action right away. Turn to
Chapter Six: Toolbox of Terror for more about devising a situation
and setting the scene.
Set the Tension: Before you start play, give some thought to the
genre, mood and atmosphere you want to convey in the game. You
can emulate these in the game by use of the Tension mechanics.
Turn to Chapter Three: Tension and Chapter Five: Genre for more
about using Tension.
Play! With the characters created, it’s time to set the scene and let
the horror commence. The rules for playing the game can all be
found in Chapter Two: The Rules of Survival.
www.steampowerpublishing.com
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CHAPTER ONE: CCRREEAATTIIN
NGG YYOOURUR
V I C TI M
CHAPTER ONE:
CONCEPT
The first thing to do when creating a character is to come up with a
concept. This should take the form of a one line description of your
character that you can use to quickly explain who the character is
and what they do.
Once you have decided on a concept, you can flesh your character
out some more. Ask yourself the following questions:
0 8 C H A P T E R O N E : C R E A T I N G Y O U R V I C T I M
ATTRIBUTES
All characters are described using four pairs of attributes. An
attribute represents the general competence of a character in a wide
variety of circumstances and situations. The attributes are intended
to be broad and flexible, and several may be appropriate in a given
situation. The pairs of attributes represent the most common
character concerns in a horror movie: knowledge, cooperation,
escape and conflict.
Identify: 7 Obscure: 3
Persuade: 4 Dissuade: 6
Pursue: 5 Escape: 5
Assault: 6 Protect: 4
C H A P T E R O N E : C R E A T I N G Y O U R V I C T I M 0 9
Identity
Can I figure out what’s going on?
Example Specialisations:
Crime Scene Investigator, Insatiable Curiosity, Librarian.
1 0 C H A P T E R O N E : C R E A T I N G Y O U R V I C T I M
Obscure
Can I conceal information?
Example Specialisations:
Discrete, Hide in Plain Sight, Look Over There!
C H A P T E R O N E : C R E A T I N G Y O U R V I C T I M 1 1
Persuade
Can I convince others to help me?
Persuade is used to get people to help you out, arguing that there
are advantages to helping you, delicately negotiating an alliance or
manipulating them into providing aid. It is used to get someone
to do what you want, as well as to get an inanimate object to do
something. Whether you are trying to sweet talk a security guard
into letting you go or picking a lock to get you inside the research
facility, Persuade is the attribute to roll. Failing at a Persuade Check
will either lead to you failing to make your case, or actively turning
your target against you.
Example Specialisations:
Charmer, Mr Fix-it, Position of Authority.
1 2 C H A P T E R O N E : C R E A T I N G Y O U R V I C T I M
Dissuade
Can I convince others not to resist me?
Example Specialisations:
Intimidating, Saboteur, Thug.
C H A P T E R O N E : C R E A T I N G Y O U R V I C T I M 1 3
Pursue
Can I catch my target?
Example Specialisations:
Headlock, No Escape, Trailblazer.
1 4 C H A P T E R O N E : C R E A T I N G Y O U R V I C T I M
Escape
Can I evade my pursuer?
Example Specialisations:
Getaway Driver, Houdini, Run for your Lives!
C H A P T E R O N E : C R E A T I N G Y O U R V I C T I M 1 5
Assault
Can I inflict harm on others?
Example Specialisations:
Fisticuffs, Gun Totin’, Vampire Slayer.
1 6 C H A P T E R O N E : C R E A T I N G Y O U R V I C T I M
Protect
Can I prevent others from causing harm?
Example Specialisations:
Bodyguard, Dodge, Holy Sacraments.
C H A P T E R O N E : C R E A T I N G Y O U R V I C T I M 1 7
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SPECIALISATIONS
A Specialisation is an aspect of an attribute where a character
excels, but at the cost of performing more general activities.
Attributes paint a character in bold swathes; Specialisations add
detail and flavour. Occult Lore, Sneaking and Shotgun Trained are
all examples of Specialisations.
C H A P T E R O N E : C R E A T I N G Y O U R V I C T I M 1 9
Adding a Specialisation
A Specialisation is always associated with an attribute pair.
2 0 C H A P T E R O N E : C R E A T I N G Y O U R V I C T I M
For example, Alice has a second Assault/Protect Specialisation,
Holy Sacraments. She currently has Assault 5/Protect 3/Vampire
Hunter 8, so her new Specialisation will only have a value of 7
(5+2), as her highest attribute is now only 5. She must then lower
her attributes by 2 again, giving her Assault 4/Protect 2/Vampire
Hunter 8/Holy Sacraments 7.
Using Specialisations
A Specialisation can substitute for any attribute, so long as it is
appropriate to the situation.
C H A P T E R O N E : C R E A T I N G Y O U R V I C T I M 2 1
SURVIVAL POINTS
Every character has a stack of Survival Points. Survival Points
represent several things: they are hit points, sanity points and
drama points all rolled into one. They are a measure of a character’s
luck, their resources, their ability to prevent death or injury, and
their ability to protect anything that is meaningful to them.
You can find more about the uses for Survival Points in Chapter Two.
BAD HABITS
There’s always one character in a horror movie who decides to go
out for a smoke just as the werewolf is sizing up the cabin for a
midnight snack, or who decides to make out with her boyfriend
right there in the crypt. These traits are called Bad Habits, and they
reward the character for causing trouble and acting to type. Think
of them as personalised clichés, little foibles or follies that cause
problems for the group and put the character - or her friends - in
danger.
A character might not have any Bad Habits, or they can have a few
- one or two is about right. Sure, they give a character an extra
way to get Survival Points, but she has to put herself at risk to take
advantage of it.
2 2 C H A P T E R O N E : C R E A T I N G Y O U R V I C T I M
It might be a horror movie cliche, such as run off and find
somewhere to hide. Alone. In the dark.
Alice
Concept: Vampire Hunter
Identify: 7 Obscure: 3
Persuade: 4 Dissuade: 6
Pursue: 5 Escape: 5
Assault: 4 Protect: 2 Vampire Hunter: 8 Holy Sacraments: 7
Survival Points: 5
C H A P T E R O N E : C R E A T I N G Y O U R V I C T I M 2 3
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CHAPTER TWO:
THE RUL
THE RULES
ES OF
OF
SURVIVAL
CHAPTER TWO:
Nothing is certain in a horror movie; not who dies first, who gets
the girl or whether the monster can even be killed. This is just as
true in Dead of Night as in any horror movie. Whilst much of play
will be taken up describing what you’re up to, talking in character
and getting yourself into implausibly stupid scrapes, whenever
your character winds up in a situation where they might end up in
peril, or whether they succeed or fail at an action is important, dice
are rolled. In Dead of Night, it is not so much a case of survival of
the fittest, but of survival of who rolls highest. Rolling badly might
not necessarily be a bad thing, but it’ll certainly take you one step
closer to ending up as a monster’s lunch.
TASK CHECKS
Roll 2D10 + attribute and compare the result to the target number.
If the roll is equal to or greater than the Target, the task is successful
and the player accomplishes what he was setting out to do. If the
roll is less than the Target, the task is failed and the player does not
accomplish what she was setting out to do.
2 6 C H A P T E R T W O : T H E R U L E S O F S U R V I V A L
For example, in her search for the vampire’s crypt, Alice is trying
to break down the door into a basement. She rolls two dice and
adds her Persuade score of 5 and needs to score 15 or more. Alice
rolls 12, which added to her Persuade 5 equals 17 – more than the
Target. She breaks the door down without trouble.
Extended Actions
A Task Check need not be used for a single action – it can easily
represent a string of related activities leading towards a single
outcome.
A single Task Check could be used to break a window and take only
a matter of seconds or it could be used to complete the investigation
of a crime scene, taking hours or even days.
Let it Ride
Something to bear in mind is that once a player has made a check,
whether successful or not, they should not be required to make
another check for the same task unless something changes. This is
an important rule to remember, so as not to bludgeon characters to
death with unnecessary dice rolls, making the players keep rolling
until they fail a check.
C H A P T E R T W O : T H E R U L E S O F S U R V I V A L 2 7
CONFLICT CHECKS
The Target for any Conflict Check is equal to 10 + the opponent’s
attribute.
A Conflict Check is made in the same way as a Task Check, but the
Target is equal to 10 + the opponent’s attribute. Most often this
attribute will be the partner of the attribute used by the player, but
this does not always have to be the case.
Continuing our previous example, Alice has broken down the door
to the basement but the vampire attempts to flee. Alice gives chase,
using her Pursue of 5. The vampire has an Escape of 4, so the
Target is 10 + 4 = 14. Alice rolls a 9, which, added to her Pursue
5 = 14, a success. Alice catches the vampire, although she might
soon wish that she hadn’t!
Indirect Opposition
Although a Conflict Check is often in direct opposition with an
opponent, it does not have to require their presence – tracks made
earlier in the day still require a Pursue Check to follow, for example,
even though the opponent is not physically present.
2 8 C H A P T E R T W O : T H E R U L E S O F S U R V I V A L
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RISK CHECKS
The loser of a Risk Check loses a Survival Point.
Before the dice are rolled, the GM can designate any check to be
Risky, making the check into a Risk Check. A Risky situation is
one in which either participant could be endangered in some way,
whether directly as a result of the action or indirectly as a result of
the consequences of failure.
3 0 C H A P T E R T W O : T H E R U L E S O F S U R V I V A L
Later in the adventure, Laurie is waylaid by the vampire too. Laurie
promptly flees, attempting to Escape the monster. John says that
the check will be Risky, as failure will lead to the vampire catching
Laurie. Laurie has an Escape of 5, the vampire a Pursue of 6. Laurie
rolls a 12, which, added to her Escape 5, equals 17 – a success.
Laurie not only escapes the vampire, but lures it away from its
lair where it becomes more vulnerable. The vampire must lose a
Survival Point.
Lavish narration should be saved until after the dice have been
rolled – this saves both players and GM the trouble of expending
all their creative energy before the outcome of the conflict has
been decided.
CLAIMING INITIATIVE
The player who states an action his character intends to take claims
Initiative and gets to act.
A player who blurts a course of action out as his action gets to act,
which can mean that a particularly cruel GM may well insist that
he keeps to his action, no matter how rash!
C H A P T E R T W O : T H E R U L E S O F S U R V I V A L 3 1
If players cannot mutually and quickly agree upon the order in
which their actions take place in a scene, actions occur in order of
descending Survival Point totals.
For example, Laurie and Alice are in conflict with a vampire. The
vampire claims initiative, as it is a creature, and leaps upon Laurie.
After it has acted, Laurie says ‘I’m going to hit it with a shovel.’
Laurie may then act. Alice then says ‘I’m going to try to stake it.’
Alice then acts, and so on.
However, a player or the GM may not roll the dice for two consecutive
checks.
3 2 C H A P T E R T W O : T H E R U L E S O F S U R V I V A L
SURVIVAL POINTS
Survival Points represent how close a character is to being written
out of the story.
Running on Empty
If a character already reduced to 0 Survival Points is required to lose
a Survival Point, she is written out of the story.
C H A P T E R T W O : T H E R U L E S O F S U R V I V A L 3 3
If a character already reduced to 0 Survival Points is required to
lose a Survival Point by whatever means, she is written out of the
story – she might die horribly, go irrevocably insane, turn into a
monster or is otherwise permanently removed from the scenario.
When a character is on the losing side during a Risk Check, she loses
a Survival Point.
3 4 C H A P T E R T W O : T H E R U L E S O F S U R V I V A L
Hold It! - A character can spend a Survival Point at any time to
negate the effect of another character’s Survival Point expenditure.
Of course, this action can also be cancelled by Survival Point
expenditure, possibly provoking a bidding war! The person who
spends the last Survival Point gets to dictate whether the action did
or did not take place.
I’ve Got Just the Thing! - A character can spend a Survival Point
to find, own or otherwise acquire a useful item of some description.
The introduction of the item must be in keeping with the established
fiction – a character cannot simply find a rocket launcher in a bar
fight, but might pick up a discarded knife, for example.
C H A P T E R T W O : T H E R U L E S O F S U R V I V A L 3 5
Artistic License - A player that describes her actions or setting
in a particularly dramatic, evocative or cool manner may gain a
Survival Point, at the GM’s discretion.
Unlucky for Some - When the sum of any dice rolled equals 13
(only the numbers on the dice, not the check), fate turns against
the good guys. A creature of the GM’s choice gains a Survival Point
and the Tension goes up by 1. Worse still, the GM can make life a
little more uncomfortable for the character.
CHAPTER THREE:
T
CHAPTER THREE:
E N
T S IO N
Managing suspense is difficult in both literature and film. Explaining
how to manage suspense in a roleplaying game is even trickier. In
order to help the GM manage suspense, Dead of Night includes a
mechanic to make his life easier. This mechanic is closely tied to
actions taken by the players, and takes the form of a single GM-
managed variable called Tension.
Tension is not only used to help the GM narrate the scene, but also to
pace the story and guide the horror along a more dramatic course.
DETERMINING TENSION
Starting Tension Points for a story can range anywhere from 1
(relatively innocuous) to 10 (disturbingly macabre).
3 8 C H A P T E R T H R E E : T E N S I O N
Using Tension to Describe Scenes
All scenes in a horror movie incorporate anticipation or suspense
to some degree. Players and the GM can use the current Tension
as a guide to introducing a similar sense of foreboding when
describing scenes. A higher Tension will result in more frightening
descriptions in a scene, regardless of whether there is actually
anything for the characters to worry about.
For example, the following descriptions are all based on the same
image. The perceptive differences are all down to the Tension:
Tension 10: The shadows of the library deepen, hiding all manner
of secrets in the darkness. In the gloom, two lovers appear to
embrace. The man grips the woman tightly, before plunging his
sharpened teeth into her throat. She groans in pain and passion
but does not pull away.
Tension 15: The darkness of the shadows seems to writhe and move
of their own accord, threatening to smother the remaining light
source. In the darkness, a tall and skeletal figure grips his victim
tightly. His razor-like fangs tear open her throat and a worm-like
tongue greedily laps up the blood. She does not struggle, overcome
by ecstasy even in her death throes.
C H A P T E R T H R E E : T E N S I O N 3 9
Using Tension to Dictate Pace
As the movie winds its way towards its climax, so too does the
Tension. The GM can use the Tension as a measure of pace, using
it to decide when to escalate the plot, when to reveal clues or plot
twists and when to start wrapping the story up. Every time the
Tension hits a new threshold - 5, 10, 15 - the atmosphere and
horror leaps to a new level, the story ramps up a notch and the
whole plot takes a step towards the climax.
When planning a story, rather than plotting out the minutiae of the
plot, the GM need only give some thought to what happens at each
Tension threshold, jotting down some ideas as to how the plot can
escalate at each stage. The GM can also decide at which threshold
the story will hit its climax - 10 or 15. This isn’t set in stone, but it
does provide a good guide as to when the GM should begin to wrap
things up.
4 0 C H A P T E R T H R E E : T E N S I O N
the check by 2. The check goes from a success to a failure, and John
describes how the vampire turns around at the last minute, leaping
towards Alice with a snarl. The Tension drops by 2, and Alice had
better run!
This helps to keep a scene suspenseful and scary even after expending
Tension Points to guide characters to a particular outcome. However,
a monster’s Survival Points add to the Tension for the purposes of
descriptions only - they do not directly increase Tension Points and
so cannot be spent by the GM to modify checks.
C H A P T E R T H R E E : T E N S I O N 4 1
MANAGING TENSION
Most horror literature and films maintain a certain mood dictated by
their genre and atmosphere, as well as a consistent style of tension.
Keeping tension within five points of the starting Tension rating
helps to stabilise this mood, whereas inexorably climbing towards
Tension 10 or 15 will lead to a relentless escalation in the mood.
It is perfectly acceptable to indulge in wild gains and expenditures
of Tension and Survival Points, but be prepared for the story to go
through a strange roller-coaster ride of moods as well.
4 2 C H A P T E R T H R E E : T E N S I O N
Mood
Mood refers to the freedom or constraint used by the GM to dispense
discretionary Survival Points. I Did It!, Running with Clichés and
Artistic License are all awarded at the discretion of the GM. If the
GM awards Survival Points sparingly, characters have less chance
to survive a scenario and Tension tends to increase gradually and
slowly. If the GM is generous with awards, Tension can significantly
and rapidly increase.
w Limit I Did It! and Running with Clichés to heighten the sense
of impending doom and decrease the traditional schlock
horror approach.
Circumstance
Circumstance refers to the specific situations Tension Points can
be used in. Without circumstantial considerations, Tension Points
could be used on a whim - at any time, for any effect and either for or
against player goals. When Tension Points are used in a haphazard
or inconsistent manner, players never know what to expect. The
consequence is often a chaotic, unfocused story.
By limiting the use of Tension Points the story can take on a very
focused structure. By encouraging certain types of check to succeed
by forcing Tension Points to be spent on them, a certain genre or
feel can be emulated. For example, in a zombie movie, flight from
the relentless hordes is a trope of the genre, whereas fighting them
is likely to get you killed. By limiting Tension Points to increasing
Escape checks and decreasing Assault checks, the behaviour
prevalent in the movie is encouraged.
C H A P T E R T H R E E : T E N S I O N 4 3
Similarly, by restraining Tension expenditure until the Tension
rating has exceeded a certain level, the suspense can be allowed
to increase slowly and relentlessly, before being blown on a big
climax. Conversely, by forcing expenditure at every opportunity,
the scenario will have more twists and turns, but the Tension is
unlikely to mount overly.
Intensity
Intensity refers to how much Tension can be expended on a single
check. By setting this number high, the GM is free to turn an
outstanding success into a miserable failure, giving him a great
deal of control over the outcome of the players’ actions. Conversely,
by restricting the amount that can be spent, the GM is only able to
nudge the dice in the direction he wants, turning narrow failures
into narrow successes.
4 4 C H A P T E R T H R E E : T E N S I O N
By a similar token, intensity can not just cap how much Tension
can be spent but mandate it. This has the effect of regulating the
flow of Tension, taking some of the choice out of the GM’s hands
and causing the Tension to drain away. This can cause a relentless
rising and falling of the Tension.
Genre
Genre is the final consideration, tying the other three settings
together into a coherent whole. It is the flavour and feel that
translates the mechanical precision of the rules into a living,
breathing horror movie. Genre takes Survival Points and gives
them meaning in the game, making them more than simple tokens.
It takes the Tension guidelines and uses them to emulate a specific
type of horror movie in the game. In short, it is the means by
which the mechanics can be translated into story. There are many
different genres of horror movie, each with its own unique tropes,
clichés and flavour.
C H A P T E R T H R E E : T E N S I O N 4 5
Putting it All Together
Scenarios can be fine-tuned by applying various mood, circumstance
and intensity guidelines. In fact, the same scenario will play very
differently with variations of guidelines. Similarly, different groups
of players may enjoy different guidelines more than others, finding
that some fit their play style or preference of horror better than
others.
BRIAN HEDLIN PRESENTS A FILM BY STEVEN VINCENT aVINCENT HEALY nGUY WINSTON JR. oELLEN C. BLACK
gJEFF HANN p GEORGE NELSON jGILL MOYES vPAUL STEVENSON kDAVID WONG
4 6 C H A P T E R T H R E E : T E N S I O N
CHAPTER FOUR: MAKIN
MA KINGG AA
MONSTER
CHAPTER FOUR:
When planning a Dead of Night game, your first port of call should
be your monster. A good well-rounded and cleverly thought-out
monster will help out immensely, informing the plot, driving the
story and generally making the whole thing hang together. Sometimes
all you’ll need to do is come up with a good monster; everything else
will fall into place naturally.
WHAT’S MY MOTIVATION?
When designing a monster, there are three questions you need to
ask yourself:
4 8 C H A P T E R F O U R : M A K I N G A M O N S T E R
also be the reason that it is a monster at all. Motivation gives a
monster a reason to act, rather than simply reacting to the presence or
actions of the protagonists. Its actions towards achieving its goals,
no matter how animalistic or simplistic they may be, can really
help to drive the story, not to mention to add a sense of danger and
menace to the proceedings.
For example: The monster must feed on the blood of others to keep
its flesh from decaying.
The second and third questions are far more practical in nature,
and invariably draw upon a monster’s motivation. Once you have
decided how it acts towards its victims, you’ll begin to have a
clearer idea as to how it operates, how it hunts its prey, what it
does to them and the sorts of abilities it might have. A monster
that slays by consuming a victim’s breath might well be stealthy,
sneaking into its victim’s room and killing them in their sleep. A
monster that dismembers its victims and consumes the chunks of
flesh might have huge blade-like appendages, or else tote a rather
large axe.
For example: The monster kills its victims by draining them of their
blood, using a sharp pair of incisors.
For example: The monster captures its victims and tortures them
with elaborate traps in its underground lair.
For example: If the victim can survive the traps and escape the lair,
the monster can be confronted and slain.
C H A P T E R F O U R : M A K I N G A M O N S T E R 4 9
MONSTROUS ARCHETYPES
In Dead of Night, monsters can be grouped into one of ten
archetypes, each reflecting a broad category of traditional monster.
Each archetype lends itself to a different play style and story, as
each has different strengths, weaknesses and powers to slay their
victims. Monstrous archetypes are only intended as loose guidelines
to help you design your own monsters, and there is likely to be a
great deal of overlap between archetypes. Each archetype describes
how the monsters within it act and operate, provides some literary
or movie examples, as well as suggesting some Specialisations for
each. A sample monster for each archetype is presented here too.
The Hunter – a monster that might pass as normal, but feeds upon
us. As seen in, Dracula, The Silence of the Lambs.
The Beast Within – a creature with two faces, which cannot help
the monster it becomes. As seen in, Dog Solders, Dr Jekyll and Mr
Hyde.
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THE UNSTOPPABLE KILLER
The Unstoppable Killer knows but one thing – murder. It is an
implacable foe, relentless in its desire to kill. It can neither be
reasoned with nor killed, for whatever drives it gives it unnatural
strength. Only cunning, trickery or over the top destruction can
defeat the Unstoppable Killer, and even then it might well be back.
Classic movies that include Unstoppable Killers are Friday the 13th
(or rather its many sequels, featuring Jason Voorhees), Halloween
(Michael Myers) and Scream (Ghostface).
Survival Points: 5
5 2 C H A P T E R F O U R : M A K I N G A M O N S T E R
Masked Psycho
The masked psychopath is the classic slasher movie villain. Masked,
wielding a knife or sickle and in the midst of a murderous killing
spree, this monster is out for blood. He has come to this small town
to put right a perceived wrong - perhaps he has been wronged by the
town’s citizens in the past or he sees himself as a crusader against
the immorality of its youth. Whatever his messed up reasons, he
has decided to take it out on the college kids, picking them off one
by one until the town has paid its due.
Identify: 3 Obscure: 7
Persuade: 1 Dissuade: 9
Pursue: 6 Escape: 2 Steady Pace: 9
Assault: 4 Protect: 2 Deadly: 9 Sequel: 8
Survival Points: 5
C H A P T E R F O U R : M A K I N G A M O N S T E R 5 3
THE VENGEFUL DEAD
Everything you need to know about the Vengeful Dead is expressed
in its name - it is out for vengeance and it’s, err, dead. This spirit’s
revenge kick might be misguided or misplaced, exacting its fury
upon any nearby victim, or it might have a genuine grievance and
is out to get its own back. Either way, it’s not stopping until it’s got
its justice. But can justice be found before it’s too late?
The nature of the Vengeful Dead will inform the story. A subtle
monster, such as a poltergeist or ghost, might lead to a more evenly
paced psychological horror or ghost story, perhaps more akin to a
supernatural mystery than outright horror. Equally, as many a J-
Horror has proven, such a monster can easily pitch the plot into
the realm of the sinister, visceral and horrific. Either way, until the
source of the perceived injustice can be found, such as the killer
brought to justice or the victim’s remains found and buried, there can
be no defeating this foe. A more tangible threat, such as a murderous
corpse returned from the grave, might have more in common with
a slasher movie, with the monster seemingly unstoppable until the
source of its power uncovered and destroyed - the one surviving
piece of its corpse or the magical amulet that gives it strength.
Most ghost stories or haunted house movies fit the bill for the Vengeful
Dead, such as Poltergeist or the Haunting. Similarly, many modern
Japanese horror movies feature the Vengeful Dead, such as Ringu,
Dark Water or the Grudge. A Nightmare on Elm Street presents
a slightly different take on the monster, with Freddy Krueger the
vengeful spirit out to slay the children of those who killed him.
I Know What You Did Last Summer performs a similar trick, albeit
in the land of the living rather than the dreams of the victims.
5 4 C H A P T E R F O U R : M A K I N G A M O N S T E R
Ghost
A ghost is the restless spirit of a dead person, unable to pass on
because of unfinished business with the living. The ghost is linked
to the mortal realm by its unburied physical remains or by strong
emotions, such as those of vengeance towards its unpunished
killer. The targets of the ghost’s vengeance might well be the source
of its anguish, or they may be innocent victims who have gotten in
the way. Their only chance at survival is to find out what stops the
ghost from reaching its afterlife and putting it to rest.
Survival Points: 4
Secrets of the Grave: The dead have many secrets and they do
not reveal them easily. This Specialisation can be used in place of
Obscure to prevent another character from discovering the ghost’s
Vulnerability.
Possession: The ghost can attempt to possess the living for a short
while, forcing another to do its bidding with a successful check.
C H A P T E R F O U R : M A K I N G A M O N S T E R 5 5
THE HUNTER
Outwardly the Hunter might appear human, but within its heart it
harbours a deep need to feed on its chosen prey - us! The Hunter
might consume the flesh of the living to sate its hunger or drink
the blood of a man to keep its flesh from rotting. It is cunning and
subtle, patient enough to wait out its victims before closing in to
feed when they least expect it. Before it can be slain a Hunter must
first be identified, its weaknesses uncovered and its lair found. Only
then can its trail of victims be put to rest.
5 6 C H A P T E R F O U R : M A K I N G A M O N S T E R
Vampire
Perhaps the most enduring and entrancing of myths, the vampire is
master of the night and lord of the undead. A vampire is a predator
like no other, a beast that walks with the shape of a man and the
power of a demon. Although a vampire needs naught more than
fresh blood to survive, it craves much more, seeking control over
others. A vampire is not without its weaknesses, however, for it is
unable to tolerate sunlight, rendered powerless during the daylight
or slain by direct exposure. It is during the hours of daylight that
its foes stand the best chance of slaying a vampire, if they can find
its crypt and drive a stake through its heart whilst it rests.
C H A P T E R F O U R : M A K I N G A M O N S T E R 5 7
THE BEAST WITHIN
The Beast Within is a creature cursed with a monster lurking
within its heart. It cannot help what it has become, perhaps
even struggling to stop the monster from escaping, but that does
not make the things it does any less horrific. Once the beast is
unleashed, anyone who crosses its path is considered fair game.
And once it has fed, it will only be sated for so long. Perhaps the
innocent victim can be saved, the Beast Within destroyed or driven
out. Or perhaps the victim must be destroyed entirely so that others
can be spared.
Including a Beast Within as the foe can make for a more emotionally
charged, morally ambiguous horror, as once the monster’s innocent
persona is discovered the characters will have to wrestle with
whether they slay it or attempt to save it. It can just as easily make
for a more straightforward horror movie too, as a trail of victims
leads them to the door of a seemingly innocuous party. For a twist,
the Beast Within could transpire to be one of the characters, who
may or may not be aware of his actions.
5 8 C H A P T E R F O U R : M A K I N G A M O N S T E R
Werewolf
Part man, part monster, all beast, werewolves are humans afflicted
with the curse of lycanthropy. A werewolf is a slave to the lunar
cycle, and when the moon is full in the sky the beast within them
stirs and the man turns into a monster, half man, half wolf.
Survival Points: 5
Deadly: When in bestial form, the werewolf is a deadly foe, all taut
muscles, powerful jaws teeth and sharp claws. This Specialisation
can be used when the monster is attacking its victim. It can be
triggered immediately after the monster wins a Risk Check to
increase the amount of Survival Points lost by the victim to 2, so
long as the check revolved around combat.
C H A P T E R F O U R : M A K I N G A M O N S T E R 5 9
THE CORRUPTER
The Corrupter is an insidious monster that turns us into our own
worst enemy. The Corrupter preys on our arrogance, greed and
hubris, tempting us to our own doom. The Corrupter might seek
to destroy us to feast on our souls or our flesh, it might do so out
of misery and suffering or for the pleasure of inflicting pain itself.
The Corrupter might very well hide in plain sight, but it is hardly
defenceless - it has its corrupted victims to protect it, after all.
6 0 C H A P T E R F O U R : M A K I N G A M O N S T E R
Witch Coven
Whether stirring the fates of kings upon a wind-swept moor or
twisting their husbands to do their bidding over a coffee in 1950s
suburbia, the coven of witches is a deadly foe. Always to be found
in threes, a witch coven is most powerful when it works together
to corrupt a single victim, pulling him this way and that with their
magic until he is utterly theirs. And it almost always is a he... men,
so easy to tempt.
Curse: With blood magic and evil charms, the coven can afflict a
victim with the evil eye. With a successful Curse Check against the
victim’s Protect, this Specialisation may be triggered. The coven can
modify the victim’s next Conflict Check up or down by 5.
C H A P T E R F O U R : M A K I N G A M O N S T E R 6 1
THE IMPOSTOR
The Impostor is a slippery customer, for it replaces or disguises
itself as its victim. The Impostor preys on us just as surely as any
other monster, but it does so disguised as our neighbour, our
husband, our child. The Impostor might disguise itself so that it
can slowly spread from host to host, taking over the world one
person at a time. Defeating the Impostor is a race against the clock,
for it is only a matter of time before we too are replaced.
There have been some very memorable Impostors, from the pod
people in the various incarnations of The Invasion of the Body
Snatchers to the shape-shifting monster in The Thing, both of
which consume their victims before assuming their identity. The
alien parasites in The Faculty and the vaylen in the Iron Empires
comics are both good examples of Impostors that simply take over
their victims’ bodies.
6 2 C H A P T E R F O U R : M A K I N G A M O N S T E R
Black Ooze
Bubbling up from beneath the Earth’s crust, disturbed by sea bed
drilling, the black ooze is a cunning, malign creature that consumes
its victims and assumes their appearance. In its natural form the ooze
appears as a pool of crude oil, but it is rarely seen in this state. As the
ooze envelops its victim, suffocating them in its grip and dissolving
their body, it takes their form, absorbing their memories and
personality. With access to the victim’s memories, the ooze can pass
itself off as human, integrating itself into their life until it finds a new
victim. Certain high frequencies of sound render the ooze incapable of
maintaining its form and force it to return to its amorphous state.
Survival Points: 5
Alter Ego: The black ooze in its natural state is an amorphous blob,
able to stretch or shrink to fit through any gap. This Specialisation
may be used whenever the creature reverts to its natural form. It may
be triggered to flip some or all of the monster’s stat pairs for a scene.
C H A P T E R F O U R : M A K I N G A M O N S T E R 6 3
THE PUPPET MASTER
The Puppet Master is a monster that controls others to do its
bidding. It might dominate others through money or fear, or it
might control their minds directly. The Pupper Master seeks to
expand its dominion of others, using its minions to extend its
control. The Puppet Master must be slain or else its minions will
keep on coming.
6 4 C H A P T E R F O U R : M A K I N G A M O N S T E R
Alien Intelligence
The last survivor of an alien race, the alien intelligence crashlanded
on the outskirts of a remote town. From its hiding place below
ground, its psychic tendrils worm their way into the minds of the
townsfolk, controlling them to do its bidding and lure more victims
into its power. Little more than a brain in a jar at the centre of its
spaceship, the alien intelligence is near defenceless, relying on its
minions to protect it from harm
Survival Points: 3
C H A P T E R F O U R : M A K I N G A M O N S T E R 6 5
THE HORDE
Some monsters pose little threat when alone, but when gathered
in great numbers they can be deadly. The Horde is a mass of lesser
creatures who, individually a lesser threat, are dangerous en
masse. The Horde is implacable, for when you kill one of its number
another two take their place. It is difficult to survive the Horde,
much less defeat it.
The Horde can take many forms, some of which could easily be
regular monsters in their own right. It could be a supernatural
threat, such as a Horde of zombies or a ravenous mob of ghouls.
It could be a mundane creature, such as a baying pack of wolves,
a flock of killer birds or overgrown, mobile plants. The Horde
might be controlled by a single driving force, such as a hive mind
or puppet master, and work towards their goal. Or it might have
a shared, but not necessarily unified goal, such as eating peoples’
brains or spreading across the surface of the Earth.
Stories with Hordes at their centre are likely to lean towards survival
horror, with the Horde presenting an insidious threat that must
be escaped and survived rather than defeated. Sometimes a Horde
can be defeated, whether by destroying whatever is controlling it,
finding a cure or some other means to destroy it en masse. It is
unlikely to be defeated by physically slaying all of its creatures. A
Horde should be treated as a single entity, with each of its Survival
Points representing one or more monsters.
6 6 C H A P T E R F O U R : M A K I N G A M O N S T E R
Zombie Mob
At first glance a zombie appears to be an easily avoidable threat;
a shambling corpse, slow and stupid. That is, until the realisation
dawns that there are so many of them, shambling ever onwards.
Most zombies have a predilection for tasty human brains, perhaps
to make up for the fact that they have none of their own. The real
strength that a zombie has is that it is rarely alone, and it takes a
hardened monster hunter indeed to evade, let alone beat, dozens
upon dozens of zombies crowding in from all sides.
Survival Points: 6
C H A P T E R F O U R : M A K I N G A M O N S T E R 6 7
THE FORMLESS HORROR
Sometimes the monster is not a single creature, nor an uncountable
mass, but the environment itself. Such a malignant terror provides
a deadly threat, for it is lurking everywhere we turn, ready to slay
us without us even realising it is there. The Formless Horror might
be driven by powerful magic, a rupture in time and space, or raw
evil itself. Because it is so pervasive, the Formless Horror can be
difficult, nay impossible, to slay.
6 8 C H A P T E R F O U R : M A K I N G A M O N S T E R
Haunted House
There has always been something wrong with the house at number
13, ever since its first occupant murdered his family in the basement
and hanged himself in the front room. Over the years the house has
seemed to bring misery, suffering and death to all who live in it,
almost as though it feeds on the blood spilt on its floorboards. Of
course, this time it will be different. This time the new family might
actually survive the night, regardless of the building’s best efforts
to trap them inside, kill them or make them turn on each other.
Identify: 4 Obscure: 6
Persuade: 3 Dissuade: 7
Escape: 1 Pursue: 7 No Escape: 9
Assault: 4 Protect: 4 Just Bricks: 7 Legion: 6
Survival Points: 6
No Escape: No matter how far you run or how hard you try to get
out, turn around and you’ll find yourself right back in number 13.
Whenever a victim successfully escapes the house, this Specialisation
may be triggered. In the next scene featuring the victim, they find
themselves back in the house, no matter how far they ran or how
implausible it might seem.
Legion: The house can lash out at everyone caught within its walls,
causing cutlery to fly from draws and bricks and mortar to fall on
its victims. Whenever successful in a Risk Check, this Specialisation
may be triggered to force every opponent in the house to lose a
Survival Point as well as the original target.
C H A P T E R F O U R : M A K I N G A M O N S T E R 6 9
THE THING FROM BEYOND
The Thing from Beyond is an unknowable, utterly alien threat, a
monster from beyond the stars - or beyond the veil - that kills for
its own reasons alone. It might kill to feed, to procreate or to slowly
take over the world, but more likely its motivations are impossible
to discern. What is known is that the Thing from Beyond is a threat
to all of us.
The Thing from Beyond makes for an exotic monster, simply because
it is so alien in nature. It might kill its victims in a particularly
unusual or horrific manner, unsettling players from the offset, or
its form might be so unnatural as to throw them off kilter. But the
plot of the story need not be so unusual, and the horror movie
is far more likely to be traditional in nature. The characters, on
discovering some of the grisly and strange deaths, must find the
alien creature that is causing them, before they too fall victim to
it. This works just as well in a high school as it does an Antarctic
research base or deep space mining ship.
7 0 C H A P T E R F O U R : M A K I N G A M O N S T E R
The Shadow from Outer Space
Visible in the unseen corners of rooms and out of certain corners
of the eye, the Shadow from Outer Space is an entity alien not only
to this world, but this reality. Hunting through time and space for
its victims, the Shadow lurks within its prey’s own shadow, sowing
seeds of panic and terror in its victim as it does so. When the victim
has suitably ripened, his fear that he is being hunted reaching
near maddening levels, the Shadow pounces, consuming the victim
whole and leaving naught but an ashen stain on the wall roughly
in the shape of a human silhouette.
Identify: 2 Obscure: 8
Persuade: 4 Dissuade: 6
Escape: 3 Pursue: 5 No Escape: 9
Assault: 3 Protect: 3 Implacable: 8 Deadly: 6
Survival Points: 4
Deadly: With tenebrous teeth, claws made from the ether and the
ability to drive its prey mad with fear, the Shadow is a deadly foe.
This Specialisation can be used when the monster is attacking its
victim. It can be triggered immediately after the Shadow wins a
Risk Check to increase the amount of Survival Points lost by the
victim to 2, so long as the check revolved around combat.
C H A P T E R F O U R : M A K I N G A M O N S T E R 7 1
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BY THE NUMBERS
Once you have made a few decisions about the monster’s motivation,
as well as thought about how and why it kills and the sort of creature
that it is, you can get down to the fine point of assigning numbers to
the monster. A monster has attribute pairs and Specialisations just
as any other character. Just slot in numbers and buy specialisations
as you normally would.
Finally, decide how many Survival Points your monster should start
the game with. This will typically be 5, but slightly less powerful
creatures might have as few as 3 or 4, and creatures designed to
work in packs might only have 1 or 2. Gargantuan beasts or nigh
unstoppable hordes might have as many as 9 or 10. The number
of Survival Points is not necessarily a measure of the power of the
monster, but instead dictates the length of the scenario. Scenarios
featuring a monster with a lot of Survival Points are likely to be
lengthy affairs, offer only the chance of escape rather than victory
to the victims or else see the demise of the victims long before the
monster succumbs to its injuries.
Monstrous Specialisations
A Monstrous Specialisation is similar in many ways to a normal
Specialisation and can be used in a check in the same way as
those Specialisations possessed by other characters. In addition,
Monstrous Specialisations have special effects that break the rules
of the game. These come at a price, however.
C H A P T E R F O U R : M A K I N G A M O N S T E R 7 3
Listed below are a selection of Monstrous Specialisations that you
can add to your own monsters, but you should feel free to modify
them to suit or come up with your own creations. In parentheses
next to each is a suggested stat that the Specialisation might belong
to. By changing the associated stat and the description of what
it does, you can easily modify these Specialisations to represent
radically different abilities.
7 4 C H A P T E R F O U R : M A K I N G A M O N S T E R
Curse (Dissuade): Through sorcerous powers or a debilitating
attack, the monster can inflict the victim with a potent curse.
With a successful Curse Check against the victim’s Protect, this
Specialisation may be triggered. The monster can modify the
victim’s next Conflict Check up or down by 5.
C H A P T E R F O U R : M A K I N G A M O N S T E R 7 5
Legion (Assault): The monster is either so large or so numerous that
it can attack many victims at once. Whenever successful in a Risk
Check, this Specialisation may be triggered to force every opponent
present to lose a Survival Point as well as the original target.
Vulnerabilities
Some monsters have a weakness, a unique flaw that a budding
monster hunter might be able to take advantage of.
This may be a Risk Check, depending on how the character sets out
to acquire the information - field testing their theory or invoking
long-dead magicks can be treacherous, after all. Knowing a
monster’s Vulnerability hands an advantage to a character fighting
it - sometimes it allows them to inflict extra damage on it, other
times using a monster’s Vulnerability is the only way to kill it for
good. Different Vulnerabilities have different effects, but all have
one thing in common:
7 6 C H A P T E R F O U R : M A K I N G A M O N S T E R
Whenever a creature loses a Survival Point to a Vulnerability, the
Tension goes up by 2 instead of 1.
Think of it this way - at the point in the movie that the victims learn
of the creature’s weakness, it doubles its efforts to stop them and
the film hurtles ever faster towards its climax.
C H A P T E R F O U R : M A K I N G A M O N S T E R 7 7
“Amazingly Brutal”
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CHAPTER FIVE:
GG E N R E
CHAPTER FIVE
In the same way as horror movie genres encompass films that share
similar combinations of different themes and styles, in Dead of Night
the concept of genre is used to quickly define the feel and flavour of
a game, grouping stories that share the same basic premise, set-up
and Tension settings. Genre is the final consideration when setting
the Tension for a game, tying all of the mechanics into the story
with a consistent flavour, but is often the first thing that a GM will
decide upon before preparing to play.
8 0 C H A P T E R F I V E : G E N R E
SLASHER
Slasher movies typically focus on the murderous rampage of a
serial killer, whose victims tend to be teenagers or college students.
As the film progresses, their deaths occur with increasing brutality
and inventiveness to shock and scare the audience. The golden age
of the slasher movie was in the 1970s, and includes such films as
Halloween, Friday the 13th and Black Christmas. Films such as
A Nightmare on Elm Street introduced supernatural elements to
the genre, but strictly speaking the perpetrator of a slasher movie
should be human. More recently, films such as Scream have given
the genre a new lease of life, culminating in countless remakes of
classic slasher flicks.
Along with the monster movie, slasher is the default genre for Dead
of Night and can be readily replicated by playing the game straight.
Create your serial killer of choice, typically wronged in someway
by the victims themselves, or their relatives. Pick an anniversary
or holiday which the killer has decided to commemorate with acts
of gratuitous violence, or that has somehow rekindled his powers
or rage. Pick a suitable location, such as summer camp or leafy
suburbia, round up a group of hapless young victims, none of whom
are truly innocent, and let the bloodshed commence.
C H A P T E R F I V E : G E N R E 8 1
JOHN COWLEY PRESENTS A BODIE DOYLE PRODUCTION A FILM BY
TERENCE MCANN aART DALEY & DAVE WINCHESTER
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Hide
Riding the new wave of slasher movies, Terence McAnn’s 2005
slasher movie, Hide, purports to be based on a true story. Centred
around a hiking expedition in rural America during the 1960s,
the story is unusual amongst slasher movies in that it features
an all-female cast, the serial killer, Alice, included. The movie
is fairly standard slasher movie fare, save for the grim realism
it imposes on the whole affair, in stark contrast to the often
implausible nature of other movies in the genre, including a killer
who succumbs relatively easily to the heroine, once she is finally
brought to bear.
Mood: Grim and gritty, yet fairly faithful to the tropes and clichés
of the slasher genre. Award Survival Points as normal.
C H A P T E R F I V E : G E N R E 8 3
MONSTER MOVIE
The other staple genre for Dead of Night is the monster movie,
that classic genre popularised by Hammer Horror and Universal
Pictures. At their heart a monster movie is really very simple
- there is a monster that must be stopped. The monster movie
can be distinguished from the Slasher movie by virtue of a more
ambitious, monstrous foe, a wider scope of setting and the
motivation of the monster not necessarily a moralistic one. The
earliest iteration of a monster movie was the saga of Beowulf,
which carries many of the tropes familiar to modern adherents
of the genre. Classic examples of the genre include Frankenstein,
Aliens, Predator and Jaws. Movies such as Cloverfield or The Host
also fall into this category.
8 4 C H A P T E R F I V E : G E N R E
Grendel, Alaska
Grendel, Alaska is a modern retelling of the saga of Beowulf,
inspired in part by ultramodern monster movies such as The Host
or Brotherhood of the Wolf. It centres around the attack on the
eponymous town by a monstrous beast and its more subtle but
no less monstrous mother. The brutally violent attacks on the
townsfolk are intercut with a conspiratorial plot concerning the
bargain struck by the mayor with the monster’s mother, and when
the monster is slain the horror takes a turn for the psychological
as the mother attempts to strike a new bargain.
C H A P T E R F I V E : G E N R E 8 5
SPLATTER
The splatter genre focuses on the portrayal of excessive gore
and the mutilation of the human form, often to the exclusion of
story, plot or character development. Notable films in the splatter
genre include Blood Feast, Braindead, Bad Taste, Re-animator
and, to a lesser extent, Cannibal Holocaust, all of which display
a morbid curiosity with the human form and its dismemberment
or disfigurement. Modern interpretations of the sub-genre are
often referred to as torture-porn, and include some of the most
successful horror movies of the past decade such as Saw or Hostel,
all of which revel in the graphic portrayal of violence, nudity,
sadism and mutilation.
8 6 C H A P T E R F I V E : G E N R E
Vorkuta Block 9
The movie that was so controversial upon its initial release for its
horrific, near pornographic, acts of violence and bloodshed that it
was banned for 25 years, Vorkuta Block 9 continues to exude an air
of mystique and reverence that it perhaps doesn’t truly deserve. Set
in the eponymous tower block in the heart of Moscow, Vorkuta Block
9 centres on the block’s janitor as he snaps after being taken for
granted one time too many and embarks on a horrific murder spree.
The film has no real hero to speak of - just a series of unfortunate,
unsympathetic victims, each of whom dies one by one in increasingly
inventive and nasty ways. At times hard to watch, Vorkuta Block 9
set new depths of bloodshed, violence and depravity, yet keeps the
thrills and chills to a maximum as it does so.
C H A P T E R F I V E : G E N R E 8 7
VAMPIRE MOVIES
Dark and brooding, sexy and ubiquitous, vampires suffer
somewhat due to overexposure (and we don’t just mean to the
sun). Vampires are everywhere, and not just in horror movies,
leading to their portrayal as smouldering sex symbols or kick-
ass action heroes, but rarely as the genuinely terrifying monsters
they really should be. Whether its Blade, Underworld or even
Twilight, vampires stopped being monsters as soon as they became
protagonists. Good examples of genuinely scary vampire movies
include Bram Stoker’s Dracula, Nosferatu, Frostbitten, Cronos,
and Let the Right One In (which, despite the vampire being a
sympathetic character, still manages to keep the horror and shock
value inherent with the monster).
8 8 C H A P T E R F I V E : G E N R E
All Teeth
One of the cleverest tricks directors Trevor Higgins and Lars
Peckram pulled in this under-rated vampire movie was convincing
the audience that it wasn’t about vampires at all, a similar trick
pulled by Danny Boyle in 28 Days Later. Of course the monster at
the heart of the movie is a vampire, but the way he is portrayed is
downright scary, chilling and oft-times brutal.
To run All Teeth as a scenario, you will need to pull off a similar
trick to that used by Higgins and Peckram. The players can portray
the victims, the innocent folk caught up in the path of the monster.
The monster himself is a vampire, but for much of the game he will
simply appear as a deranged killer. Only later in the game should
you reveal some of his more supernatural abilities or traits, such as
the need to drink blood or the ability to shrug off an unholy amount
of damage.
Intensity: No limit.
C H A P T E R F I V E : G E N R E 8 9
WEREWOLF MOVIES
Although rarely as sexy as their more popular, bloodsucking
counterparts, werewolves instead retain an air of cool, of rugged
machismo and the danger of the beast within. Unlike vampire
films, werewolf movies often focus on the monsters as protagonists,
innocent victims bitten by a werewolf and forever cursed to wrestle
with their monstrous persona. Often the curse of lycanthropy will
be used as a metaphor for real life, such as puberty and adolescence
in Ginger Snaps or Teen Wolf. Classic werewolf movies include The
Wolfman, Dog Soldiers and An American Werewolf in London.
9 0 C H A P T E R F I V E : G E N R E
Coyote Creek
Part slasher horror, part werewolf movie, Coyote Creek follows the
clichéd trail of a group of college students on a road trip across the
States. In a particularly remote part of the mid-west they decide to
stop at Coyote Creek, an out of the way campsite and local landmark
marked on their maps. They pull into town, finding it full of boarded
up buildings save for the diner and gas station, wherein they are
told that the creek lies up in the hills a day’s trek away. Coyote Creek
itself, in true horror movie fashion, turns out to be built on an old
Indian burial ground, but the twist in the tale is that the Indians are
still very much alive, roaming the hills as werewolves and preying
on backpackers. After a tense, nervy night camping, during which
they are attacked by the monsters, the students face a daunting flight
back downhill, even as their own number begin to turn...
Starting Tension: 5.
Mood: Schlock horror all the way, with plenty of blood, gore and a
fair amount of tongue firmly planted in cheek.
C H A P T E R F I V E : G E N R E 9 1
GHOST STORIES
Ghost stories are often seen as the forefathers of modern day
horror, the works of Washington Irving, MR James, Henry James
and Edgar Allan Poe the real precursors to today’s horror industry.
The modern-day iteration, the haunted house movie, remains a
firm fixture of the genre. Modern ghost stories tend to fall into one
of two camps: the innocent family who are haunted by a ghost, such
as The Amityville Horror or Paranormal Activity; and the haunted
house movie, where a group find themselves, either by accident or
by design, trapped in a haunted house, such as The Haunting or
The House on Haunted Hill.
9 2 C H A P T E R F I V E : G E N R E
Path Lab
Path Lab, the debut film from directors Tom Scholtz and Bert Altzmer,
is superficially very different from a classic ghost story. Set in the
pathology laboratory of a Chicago hospital, at first the story seems
to be a classic whodunnit, a tale of a doctor and detective on the
hunt for a serial killer murdering patients in the hospital. It’s only
at the midway point of the movie that you realise the horrible truth
- it’s a haunted house movie, but instead of a house it’s the hospital
itself that’s haunted, and the ghosts that are the killers. From then
on it’s an edge-of-your-seat horror movie, as the protagonists find
themselves trapped in the hospital when the power goes out and
the ghosts come out, trying to enact their own horrific deaths on
the living over and over again. Unpleasant, scary stuff.
If you run Path Lab as a Dead of Night scenario, the players can
play the detectives and doctors on the search for the killer. At first
have them think they’re on the trail of a mundane killer, before
pulling the bait and switch on them midway through when you
reveal the first ghost. The ghosts themselves are the monsters, and
the Vengeful Dead archetype works very well for them. The ghosts
kill people in the same manner that they themselves were killed,
and the trick to stopping them is to find what started it all in the
first place - easier said than done.
Starting Tension: 5.
C H A P T E R F I V E : G E N R E 9 3
SOLJANKA PRESENTS A GETZ MULLER PRODUCTION A FILM BY T SCHOLTZ & BERND ALTZMER aPETER SCHRIBER & ALEXANDER BRAUER
nBERND BAUMANN gGERTZ HUTTON uRIVERSIDE STUDIOS jDAGMAR FULTONN kARNIM KRUEG DOHN
T H E D E A D D O N ’ T S T A Y D E A D F O R L O N G
0 2 C H A P T E R F I V E : G E N R E
ASIAN HORROR
As crude as it might be to distinguish a genre purely by culture,
the genre of Asian horror (sometimes referred to as J-Horror,
short for Japanese horror) remains distinct and highly influential,
spawning many a Hollywood remake. Asian horror often stems
from the traditional Japanese ghost story or urban myth, albeit
updated to the modern day, often employing technology as a core
part of the horror. The psychological element is core to the horror,
with films often drawing out the tension over a protracted period of
time, before hitting the viewer with an explosive shock. Films like
Ringu, One Missed Call, Ju-On: The Grudge and Audition are most
representative of the genre.
C H A P T E R F I V E : G E N R E 9 5
Dust
The original Dust, a film by Matarokurô Nariaki, was such a huge
hit in Japan that it was bought up and translated by a Hollywood
studio straightaway. The translation transposed the action from an
apartment block on the outskirts of Osaka to a brownstone tenement
building in New York. The plot remained largely unchanged for the
translation, telling the story of the residents of a tenement block
haunted by the ghost of a little girl and her mother, who were
murdered there a year before. The film drew on many of the same
inspirations and trappings as Dark Water and The Grudge had before
it, and Hollywood actually managed to make a half-decent job of
the translation, capturing both the tension and mood of the piece.
The climax, in which the house begins to be consumed by flames as
the vengeance of the dead literally boils over, is a fantastic blend of
special effects and psychological nastiness - especially the bit where
one of the residents, Jessica, stalks through the flames, gun in hand,
her eyes set firmly on the true villain, the murderer himself.
9 6 C H A P T E R F I V E : G E N R E
CRETEAFILMS PRESENTS A HENRIQUE PRODUCTION A FILM BY ANDRE DE HENRIQUE & PAULO BOURDAIN aNICOLE BOULEJUNOIS
nFRANCOIS RUE gALEKSANDR DMITRIOV uBUBBA ZINETTI & CGSHQ jMATHAIUS MATCHELLO kRICARDO STOKINI
C H A P T E R F I V E : G E N R E 0 3
ZOMBIE APOCALYPSE
One of the few genres of horror to be invented purely for the
cinema, the zombie apocalypse is now a firm fixture in the horror
movie landscape. Often encompassing a far larger scale disaster, the
zombie apocalypse typically picks up after the event has happened,
focusing on a small band of survivors and their struggles. Survival
and escape, rather than victory, is the only likely outcome. Night
of the Living Dead, its sequels and remakes are great examples, as
is 28 Days Later.
9 8 C H A P T E R F I V E : G E N R E
Incubation
Incubation was made in the aftermath of 28 Days Later, and it shows
- we have abandoned cities, mysterious plagues and tense stand-offs
between bands of survivors. The main difference is that the plague
remains highly contagious in Incubation, forcing the protagonists
to wander around in hazmat suits or toting gas masks; hardly the
easiest things to do when they’re being chased by hideously mutated
plague victims. The movie distinguishes itself by playing up the
tension between the survivors to the max, especially the uncertainty
of who is infected and who is not. As much of the horror stems from
the necessities of life under quarantine, especially the cruel and
callous choices forced upon the lead characters. The horror of the
plague victims’ fate plays second fiddle to the human horror.
C H A P T E R F I V E : G E N R E 9 9
PSYCHOLOGICAL HORROR
Psychological horror primarily deals with the mental or spiritual
destruction of its protagonists. A common factor is the disintegration
of the barrier between the character’s internal state and the outside
world, with their internal nightmares apparently taking external
form. Protagonists in psychological horror stories often provide an
unreliable point of view, unable to differentiate between their fears
and the real world. The ambiguity of their mental state, as the world
falls apart around them, makes the story all the more unsettling.
1 0 0 C H A P T E R F I V E : G E N R E
Whispers
The characters awake to a world that has fallen apart. The sky is
dark, there is no electricity, television or radio, and the rest of
humanity is either dead or a handful of shell-shocked survivors.
People’s inner fears have come to life and are driving them to self-
destruction; they are accompanied by living shadows that flow
across the landscape, whispering to people, preying on their secrets
and nightmares. Some survivors that the characters encounter may
believe that they are in Hell, that this is the apocalypse, that the
dead have risen and are punishing the living for their sins, or even
that alien entities have invaded and are using our fears to destroy
us. One of these may be true, but the setting is more sinister if there
is no clear answer.
Starting Tension: 5.
C H A P T E R F I V E : G E N R E 1 0 1
LOVECRAFTIAN HORROR
Lovecraftian horror, a genre named after its originator, HP Lovecraft,
focuses on the psychological element of horror of the story and
the slippery slope towards insanity. Although Lovecraftian horror
contains a heavy dose of the supernatural, it is very much the
psychological aspect that is the centre of attention. The common
theme for a Lovecraftian horror story is the thin veneer of reality,
beneath which lies a horrific, sanity-breaking other world, the
Cthulhu Mythos of his creation. Much of his protagonists doom
stems from their own actions, as they investigate things best left
undisturbed, delving into that which man was not meant to know.
Classic Lovecraftian tales include the short stories The Shadow
Over Innsmouth, The Dunwich Horror and the Call of Cthulhu.
Lovecraft’s works have been adapted into films on a number of
occasions, but rarely successfully (The Curse) or authentically
(Re-Animator).
1 0 2 C H A P T E R F I V E : G E N R E
The Shadow from Outer Space
The little-known Robert Edmund Hallcroft was inspired by the body
of work produced by Lovecraft and his contemporaries, and enjoyed a
small amount of success in his lifetime with his own, similarly themed
stories. His most famous story, The Shadow from Outer Space was
printed in Macabre Motives magazine in 1938. A fan-made adaptation
of the story won the Moon Silver Award for short horror films in
2001, although it remains fairly obscure. The story tells of a professor
of astronomy, Professor Edwin Montfort, who inadvertently makes
contact with the eponymous Shadow when exploring the heavens
with his psycho-scope. The Shadow is a malevolent interdimensional
hunter that lurks in the corners and shadows of the world, stalking
the halls of the library and feasting on the students it finds there
after hours, apparently driving them to suicide as it does so. Much of
the story chronicles the Professor’s internal angst, but it breaks with
the traditions of the genre by involving his fellow faculty members
as they attempt to find the creature and send it back from whence
it came. Although they succeed in this, it is not without loss, as the
Professor succumbs to his insanity.
The Shadow from Outer Space makes for a good Lovecraftian horror
scenario, for it involves a cast of characters as well as the possibility
for a proactive, if not happy, ending. The characters should be the
Professor and his colleagues, investigating the strange murders
within the library. The Shadow itself can be a Thing from Beyond,
an alien creature with little obvious form or motivation.
Starting Tension: 5.
C H A P T E R F I V E : G E N R E 1 0 3
BLACK COMEDY
The last genre to be discussed is black comedy, also known as
comedy horror. Comedy horror movies might be no less terrifying
than other horror movies, but are often self-deprecating and self-
referential, encouraging the viewer to laugh at their fears. The
comedy in a comedy horror can veer between black comedy all the
way to slapstick, and anywhere in between. Notable black comedy
movies include Braindead, Cemetery Man and the Evil Dead series
of films.
1 0 4 C H A P T E R F I V E : G E N R E
Off Season
British director Martin Nicks has had a long career of making films
that cash in on current trends, and his recent work, Off Season
is an obvious attempt to cash in on popular black comedy/horror
films such as Severance, Botched and The Cottage. Off Season is set
in a run-down seaside town on the east coast of England. It follows
the misfortunes of a group of misfits, as they travel to the seaside
for a stag party for their mutual friend Dave Cardiff.
If you adapt Off Season as a game the characters should be the stag
party, with the opening scene taking place the morning they arrive
at Elmsport and discover that they’re lost the groom. The players
should be rewarded for splitting up and discovering the various
traps that the locals have left for them. All the weaponry and tools
that the locals use should be related to fishing - boat hooks, fishing
knives, harpoons and so on. Almost from the word go, the locals
will try to kill the characters, and the Tension will build up as
they discover that their bus has been sabotaged and they have no
way out of town. The locals’ ultimate goal is to lower any survivors
(including the missing groom) down to the shoreline in over-sized
lobster pots and wait for the tide to come in to present them as
offerings to the local sea life.
Starting Tension: 5.
C H A P T E R F I V E : G E N R E 1 0 5
BODY HORROR
Body horror is a genre where the horror derives from the body itself,
specifically its uncontrollable degeneration, decay or mutation. Key
films in the body horror genre include the Fly, the Brood, Tetsuo:
the Iron Man and, more recently, District 9. The genre exacerbates
a sense of loss of control over that fundamental centre of being
- your own body. It has a lot in common with the psychological
horror genre, except whereas in that genre it is the loss of sanity
and mind that is at stake, in the body horror genre it is a loss of
your own body.
Body horror can stem from all manner of places, from viruses
and exposure to weird radiation all the way up to infestation by
alien parasites. Likewise the transformation can manifest itself in
different ways - almost all of them slow-burning - such as the slow
decay of body parts or strange mutations to the replacement of the
flesh bit by bit with metal or alien physiology. Sometimes the victim
is unaware of the transformation, but more often than not it is
painfully apparent to them, if not to anyone else.
1 0 6 C H A P T E R F I V E : G E N R E
Symbiote
Symbiote is one of the more unpleasant - yet painfully stylish and
darkly humorous - body horrors, following in the footsteps of the
multitude of Spanish horror movies to appear in the late 00s.
Ramone and Leanna Baharanda’s movie centres around a pair of
scientists sent to investigate a virus outbreak in a remote Spanish
town. There they discover that the townsfolk are falling victim
to the symbiote of the title, a horrible macrovirus that warps the
victim’s body and drives them insane before finally slaying them
- all shown in hideous detail, of course. Although the film’s poster
shows the end result of the infection, the special effects showing the
inside of the victim moments before death remain some of the more
creative, yet gory, uses of CGI to date. The real twist in the tale was
that there were two twists - both writers wrote their own endings
(Ramone favoured a supernatural explanation, whereas Leanna’s
ending was firmly rooted in mad science), and both were filmed
and released, to the frustration and delight of cinema-goers.
One trick you can pull is to use tokens or beads as Survival Points,
mixed in with a number of distinctly coloured tokens. When
players gain a new Survival Point, get them to draw from the bag - a
coloured token indicates that the victim has become infested. They
can’t spend these coloured tokens, and the more they have the
more the virus spreads, driving them increasingly insane. Once all
they have are coloured tokens, they snap, going on a psychopathic
rampage before passing on the virus and dying. Messily.
Starting Tension: 5.
C H A P T E R F I V E : G E N R E 1 0 7
Hay un infierno.
Y está dentro de ti.
,
u n a p e l i c u l a d e R a m o n e B a h a r a n d A
ROBERTO FRANCINI PRESENTS A RAMIREZFILM PRODUCTION A FILM BY RAMONE BAHARANDA aRAMONE & LEANNA BAHARANDA
nSTEPHANO TARRINI gMARIO MANCIO uTHE RENDER STORE jERNESTO FULLER kRAMA EL HEFE
CHAPTER SIX: TOOLBO
TOO LBOXX OF
OF
T E R RO R
CHAPTER SIX:
You can find more advice on running Dead of Night at our website:
www.steampowerpublishing .com
1 1 0 C H A P T E R S I X : T O O L B O X O F T E R R O R
LIBERATION FROM PREPARATION
Dead of Night works best when you don’t have a strict storyline in
mind; when you have a strong set of characters, each with their own
agendas and motivations; and when you place them in an intense
situation. Focus on crafting these aspects of the story, rather than
a tightly plotted story, and your game should zing along under its
own steam, rather than requiring you to force it along a pre-written
path. And, luckily for the workshy GM (for whom this game was
written), that requires the smallest amount of work.
This section takes a look at how to set up and plan a game of Dead of
Night, whether you’ve got four weeks to prepare or four minutes.
Premise
Most one-shots start from a single, simple idea that acts as the
foundation for everything else that makes up the scenario. This
may be a random thought, like I’d really like to try a zombie game
set during the Crusades; a deliberate combination of ideas, such
as noticing that your group likes science fiction and ghost stories,
and deciding to set a game on a haunted space station; or taking
inspiration from a film, book or comic you enjoyed, such as setting a
game using the rage virus from 28 Days Later in your home town.
Don’t feel that whatever you come up with has to be original. By the
time you have come up with a few characters and locations, and the
players start playing around with these elements, you will end up
with a game that has its own flavour. Also, don’t be afraid to change
the idea fundamentally as you start developing it if the new ideas
you or your players have seem more interesting to you.
C H A P T E R S I X : T O O L B O X O F T E R R O R 1 1 1
Improvisation vs. Preparation
When preparing a scenario, it is sometimes easy to fall into the
trap of looking at it as a story and trying to plan a series of events
that will happen in a particular order. In practise, not only is this
generally unnecessary work, but it can actively work against the
enjoyment of the players. The players will almost certainly go to
locations you had not considered, want to talk to NPCs you haven’t
designed and tackle problems in completely unexpected ways.
Learning how to react to these events and create the game elements
you need on the fly is a crucial skill for a GM.
Characters
It can be easy to come up with an idea for a game, then flesh out
details such as the monster and NPCs, leaving the role of the
characters as an afterthought; the problem is that this can lead
to a flat, uninvolving game. As with a good story, the protagonists
should be at the centre of events, and the situation should give them
a strong motivation to take action. Whether you are pre-generating
the characters for the game or asking the players themselves to create
them, you should have a good idea of what kinds of characters and
motivations will tie into the scenario and share them with the players.
1 1 2 C H A P T E R S I X : T O O L B O X O F T E R R O R
This can be something as simple as giving the monster a reason to
stalk the characters, such as revenge for a past misdeed, or having
the characters’ home, family or something equally important to
them threatened.
Creating characters with ties to each other also helps make for a
strong game, especially if the ties are complicated. Having a mix of
love, friendship, rivalry, mistrust and even hatred can encourage
the characters to interact in interesting ways once they are under
pressure. Human relationships are rarely simple, and the more
complicated ones are the stuff of drama.
Isolation
Most effective horror stories rely to some degree on isolating the
protagonists from possible sources of help and comfort, making sure
that they have to deal with the threat on their own. This isolation
can be geographical, such as setting the action on an island or in a
remote farmhouse; social, such as the characters being homeless,
children, mentally ill or any other group whose stories are unlikely
to be believed; or situational, such as using a war, natural disaster
or apocalypse as a setting, ensuring that non-player characters are
too preoccupied with their own situation to offer easy assistance.
Locations
You will need to come up with a few basic locations that will be key
to the game. These may include places such as the characters’ home,
a crime scene, the deserted summer camp, the monster’s lair, and
so on. In general, you only need to have a rough idea of what they
look like; maps are rarely necessary. A few sensory descriptions
will give the players enough to fill in the blanks themselves.
For example, ‘The house has largely stayed standing since the
fire, but there are holes in the walls big enough for a man to step
through. Everything still reeks of smoke, and you can hear the
charred beams creaking around you. Looking through the hole,
you can see that the living room floor has collapsed into the cellar.
There is the sound of something moving in the dark.’
C H A P T E R S I X : T O O L B O X O F T E R R O R 1 1 3
Don’t worry about pre-populating locations with items; just use
your experience and common sense to decide whether it’s logical
that, for example, there should be a payphone in the hotel lobby. If
a player asks whether a particularly useful item is around, remind
them that if they spend a Survival Point on I’ve Got Just the Thing,
it will be there.
Non-Player Characters
As with locations, non-player characters can be very loosely defined.
Generally, you can get by with a name, a motivation and a physical
description. Adding some mannerisms or an accent can help make
the character more real to the players, but is not necessary. You
won’t normally need to provide stats for NPCs; unless they are
particularly special, or a monster, just give them 5/5 in all attribute
pairs and no Specialisations.
1 1 4 C H A P T E R S I X : T O O L B O X O F T E R R O R
For example, if you were running the zombie game set during the
Crusades mentioned earlier, you may want to start with a group
of NPC knights, feared lost in battle, returning to the fort late at
night. They are battered and bloody, and some seem to be stricken
with an unfamiliar disease. One of them is clutching a small cloth-
wrapped bundle under his arm and drops it as he collapses. He
moans something about Baphomet as he loses consciousness. As the
player characters gather round, the bundle begins to scream...
Hard choices - one of the corpses the mad scientist has reanimated
is the dead wife of a character; does he spare her, or help her find
peace?
Clues - the family photograph albums go back for over fifty years,
but uncle Roger looks the same in every picture.
Threats - the beast has left a trail of blood back to its lair, but this
is just a ruse to get its hunters into the cave before it collapses it
on them.
You don’t have to use all the material you prepare, especially if the
story seems to be going in a different direction than you anticipated,
and don’t rush to use the next bit if there is still fun and tension to be
gained from the current scene. Throw in threats and complications
whenever it feels like the game is beginning to slow, even if this just
means having the monster attack unexpectedly.
C H A P T E R S I X : T O O L B O X O F T E R R O R 1 1 5
Don’t Wait for the Good Stuff
Most single-session games, whether a convention game or just a
group of friends gathered for the evening, will run for 3-4 hours.
If you take character generation, explaining the rules and general
chit-chat into account, you may only be left with about 2 1/2 hours
of game time. This means you have to try to pack as much fun into
this time as possible. For the GM, part of this will involve keeping
people focused on the game and cutting digressions short. You
should also keep an eye on scenes that are going nowhere, such as
players discussing plans of action and going round in circles; don’t
be afraid to jump in and ask, ‘So what do you do?’, or simply cut to
a new scene involving different characters.
As the GM, the most important thing you can do, though, is not
to hold back on the good stuff. If you have an idea for an exciting
scene or conflict, don’t make the players work for it or try to stretch
out play to build tension. You just don’t have the luxury of time.
This doesn’t mean that you should just launch into the climax as
soon as possible, but you do need to keep up the pace. If the players
are floundering a bit or aren’t quite sure where to go next, bring
the threat to them or have them uncover a clue that will lead them
into danger. The worst thing that can happen to a game is for the
players to get bored.
A Cathartic Climax
Quite often, a scenario will have an obvious climactic scene; if
the characters are hunting a vampire through the Transylvanian
countryside, you might expect the final scene to be a showdown
with the vampire in the crypt of his castle. On the other hand, a
player may decide that her character is going to offer herself up as
bait and try to trick the vampire into staying out of its coffin past
sunrise. If this is the case, and the game feels like it is reaching a
natural conclusion, you should happily abandon all plans you had
and accept this as the climax.
1 1 6 C H A P T E R S I X : T O O L B O X O F T E R R O R
Mostly, though, knowing that the game is coming to an end is a
matter of assessing the story that has been created and the players’
feelings; if they have discovered that the wraith’s body is buried
under the church and are digging up her remains at midnight to
lay her to rest, this is the time for her to throw everything she has
at them.
C H A P T E R S I X : T O O L B O X O F T E R R O R 1 1 7
Some of the questions you could use to get the ideas flowing are:
1 1 8 C H A P T E R S I X : T O O L B O X O F T E R R O R
This will give you a basic outline for the game. You can now move
on to defining the specifics.
Once you have all this information, the players should generate
their characters. While they are doing this, the GM can give some
thought to the threat and how it ties into the situation that everyone
has created. It is usually enough to pick a suitable monster or two
out of the book. Sometimes you may need to make some minor
changes if you have decided on a threat that is not listed, but you
C H A P T E R S I X : T O O L B O X O F T E R R O R 1 1 9
can usually just make a change or two to an existing monster and
call it something else. For example, if the players have decided the
threat is a banshee, and you don’t have stats for one, you could just
use a ghost and give it an Assault/Protect Specialisation of Deadly
to reflect its cry.
Any other NPCs can be assumed to have 5/5 in attribute pairs and
no Specialisations.
You are now ready to start play. Having a strong opening scene
which immediately places the characters in danger or identifies
a clear goal, such as getting off the island before the zombies eat
everyone, will get the game moving swiftly. From this point, the
game runs pretty well like any other, with the GM building the
threat and pushing to a climactic scene.
1 2 0 C H A P T E R S I X : T O O L B O X O F T E R R O R
NAKAMURA-YEBISU PRESENTS A MASAYOSHI YAHURO PRODUCTION A FILM BY KENDO NAGASAKI & HIROMI TAKENO
aAKIRA HIGUCHI nAKIRA HIGUCHI gCLOE NIKORU uMUNETAKA INC. jNIIHARA MONISHI
kNURIKO ‘CATWEASEL’ TAKASAKI & MUNETARA HITOMI
PULLING THE LEVERS: CUSTOMISING THE GAME
One of the aspects of the game that is often overlooked or
underestimated is the ability to customise it to the needs of the
story and the group. I’m not talking about house rules here, but
about the various levers and switches within the rules that can
be tweaked and pulled to get different results and make the game
feel very different. Survival Points are the easiest lever to pull:
by adjusting what they represent, sometimes on the fly, the tone
of the game can be changed. A frantic fight against aliens where
Survival Points represent dwindling ammunition will feel different
to a splatter game where losing a Survival Point equates to physical
maiming of the character.
The final lever that you can pull is a part of Tension, but deserves
a mention in its own right, and that is mood. Mood determines
when Survival Points are gained and, in particular, which clichés
will net a player Survival Points. For a classic slasher movie, mood
can be suitably camp, netting Survival Points for getting busy in
the graveyard with your boyfriend or for running into the woods
in high heels. For a darker, more Lovecraftian horror, the mood
can be switched appropriately, and instead Survival Points might
only be handed out for relentlessly pursuing hidden knowledge or
reading the big, black-bound tome.
So, don’t just use the various mechanics unthinkingly from game
to game - give the levers some thought, and play about with them to
get the desired effect. The rest of this section takes a look at just a
few ways that you can get the best out of the rules to make the game
deliver exactly what you want.
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The loss of a Survival Point might trigger a wild hallucination,
drawn randomly from a deck of different visions, or it could result
in the character exhibiting a new symptom of an alien parasite, as
defined by a sliding scale of different effects. There are all manner
of different effects, conditions and other gimmicks that you can
attach to the loss or gain of Survival Points.
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Set-up right (and there are pages of advice for tinkering with
Tension in the relevant chapter, and plenty of examples scattered
throughout the book), Tension takes care of itself. By configuring
the tension circumstances at the start of the game, you’ve already
given yourself guidelines as to when to spend Tension points. Keep
one eye on the guidelines and one eye on the game, and whenever
a suitable circumstance pops up, spend Tension accordingly. This
should cause the characters to sweat as the vice tightens, but also
to fill the players with trepidation whenever they spend a Survival
Point, knowing that doing so hands the GM a real advantage.
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Make Them Pay
Around my gaming table one of the most commonly heard replies by
me is, ‘If you spend a Survival Point...’ I utter this phrase whenever
a player asks if they have a flashlight, if the alleyway has a door at
the end, if their gun has a spare clip. In short, whenever a player
asks me whether they have anything, or can find something, the
answer is always ‘yes, if you spend a Survival Point.’ I don’t give
anything away for free, except perhaps the odd clue, but certainly
nothing useful like an escape route or a gun or a torch. That’s what
Survival Points are for, after all.
C H A P T E R S I X : T O O L B O X O F T E R R O R 1 2 5
a jon anderson film
every parent
should be proud
of their child
no matter what
C H A P T E R S I X : T O O L B O X O F T E R R O R 1 2 7
That’s not to say you should grill every prospective player and feed
them a horror story based solely on their hang-ups. If nothing
else, you have a lot of mouths to feed. But if you focus on one or
two fears at the table, at the very least you can be pretty sure the
guardian spirit is going to get chopped up. And that twitchiness is
awfully infectious.
1 2 8 C H A P T E R S I X : T O O L B O X O F T E R R O R
louder, or the very shadows seem to move when viewed from the
corner of the eye… it all seems more real, and more visceral, by
virtue of the fact that the players have become so immersed in the
world, and so sure of its earthly parameters, that the horror of
what’s about to happen hits them like a ton of bricks. If this is the
real world, then how on earth can we combat this thing? We’re all
doomed!
And that’s exactly the reaction you’re angling for when you unveil
your monstrous masterpiece.
Problem is, if you don’t offer the players respite, they’ll become
fatigued by the constant pressure to plan and respond. Eventually,
the pace becomes cartoonish, and the players will act accordingly.
There goes the mood.
So you need to pause along the way. Offer the players an all-too
brief moment where they catch their breath, bicker over who ate
the last packet of crisps, and warily eye the slats hurriedly nailed
across the door. Ask the obvious questions: ‘How do you feel about
him leaving your character in the car?’ ‘Do you think he deserved
to escape?’ ‘Do you trust her with the shotgun?’ You can provoke a
lot of interpersonal tension with some pointed questions.
Give the players what seems like a resting place, a couple of tins of
baked beans, and a chance to slap on that bandage. Prod them into
arguing, and leave that to stew for a little while. And just before
someone gets the final word... the monster comes through the
door.
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There Can be No Escape
‘Why don’t we all just leave?’ you might well ask, were you to find
yourself in a horror movie yourself. Sadly, horror movies don’t
work like that; wherever the characters go, the horror follows.
There can be no escape. Think of Jaws 4 (as traumatic as that
might be). Despite flying thousands of miles to the Bahamas, the
Brody family find themselves followed by the eponymous shark.
Sounds mightily implausible, for sure, but that’s just how the logic
in a horror movie works.
And that’s how the logic should work in your games too. Often the
situation, the characters’ agendas and the good-natured embracing
of the tropes of a horror movie will keep a player engaged in the
game, willfully placing his character in danger. But there will be
occasions when players do the unthinkable and act rationally,
attempting to escape the movie and flee the monster. But they
cannot possibly succeed in doing this. They might escape for a time,
but the monster will relentlessly pursue them.
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When we talk about the familiar, it doesn’t have to be restricted
to physical locations that the players can all relate to. We all have
idealised images of American diners, college dorms, abandoned
warehouses, lavish New York apartments and even the darkened
corridors of spacecraft, all drawn from popular culture with
depictions on TV and in the cinema. These can be used to your
advantage just as readily as real-world locales, taking advantage of
commonly shared imagery to make the players quickly place their
characters in their imagination.
Relationships
Whereas the sordid relationships and complicated love triangles
between characters is not something the lightest of slasher
movies need contend itself with, more psychologically involved
horror movies use the personal relationships of the characters
as key drivers of the horror. As part of character creation,
consider plotting out a relationship map - a diagram depicting the
relationships, both emotional and physical, between characters.
This needn’t be more than a sheet with everybody’s name written
on it, with relationships joined by lines. Don’t be constrained
to just the players’ characters - non-player characters can be
incorporated too. This gives the players a vested interest when
the monster starts to chow down on the townsfolk - that’s not a
nameless victim he’s eating, it’s Jim’s wife!
A neat trick you can use is, before play starts, for everyone to jot
down a relationship on an index card, whether another player or
a resident of the town that they’ve just invented. Once all of the
players have done this, each takes it in turns to pick another player’s
relationship and devise their own relation to that person too. Quite
quickly, a complex relationship map can be created between all the
players and the townsfolk. The twist in this technique, however,
is that the index cards are retained by the GM. Whenever another
victim is found dead, the GM picks a card at random to decide who
the victim was.
C H A P T E R S I X : T O O L B O X O F T E R R O R 1 3 1
Uncooperative Play:
Fostering Mistrust & Suspicion, by James Mullen
The worst time to find out your boyfriend is cheating on you is
when you are both holding back the barricades against the
oncoming zombie hordes, so I always try to have something like
that happen in any game of Dead of Night that I run. A cohesive
group of friendly characters who all cooperate towards their
mutual survival makes for an unexciting story; I like characters in
my games to ask themselves which is worse, the monsters outside
or the people they are stuck inside with? Witness The Thing for a
great example of this.
w Slipping away from the group or your post for some intimacy,
just when everyone needs to stick together and be on guard.
I always build the potential for situations like this into my characters
and encourage players to do likewise when creating their own
characters; build a relationship with one or two other characters,
then think of ways in which that relationship can suffer a dramatic
breakdown.
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The other component in this equation is the opportunity for
revelations to be made. My scenarios are set in locations with
lots of private spaces and the set-up encourages characters to go
off in groups of two or three before or in-between any scenes of
supernatural horror. Characters need to have an agenda besides
simply surviving and players should be encouraged to pursue these
personal agendas at the worst possible times, with the promise
of Survival Points for doing so. I like to create personal agendas
in opposing pairs, with each half of the pair being pursued by a
different character. For example, two colleagues each trying to avoid
redundancy with only one job available; the journalist sniffing out
a story around the official trying to cover it up; two media stars
forced to share the spotlight, each trying to ensure that they get the
biggest billing.
The most successful games of Dead of Night I’ve run are the ones
where players have separated themselves from their characters and
taken the attitude that survival or death aren’t important, only
whether the story created is enjoyable and exciting.
C H A P T E R S I X : T O O L B O X O F T E R R O R 1 3 3
As with everything, however, there is still scope and opportunity
to make use of such a technique. There are some instances where
a character with a secret background or personal agenda is
appropriate, and where you’re going for the surprise of the big
reveal. Situations where one of the players is secretly a monster,
or the goals of the characters are in direct competition with each
other, for example. In such cases by all means keep it a secret
however best you can, until you are ready for the big reveal to
come out through play. Just be mindful that in gearing up for the
surprise of the reveal, you’re not compromising the rest of the
horror movie.
A Word on Clichés
The notion of a cliché is an unfixed concept, a mutable idea that
can shift depending on the genre or mood of the game. A cliché only
really becomes a cliché at the point that it is a repetitive, recognisable
trope. Hence, horror movie clichés only became clichés after movies
began to reuse them, sometimes accidentally, sometimes lazily and
sometimes knowingly.
The same is true for clichés that you include in your games. Just like
in the movies, the easiest and most likely to get a positive response
from the players is the classic horror movie cliché. Because the
players know them, they can play up to them, playing into the
hands of the cliché to get rewarded with an expected outcome.
Conversely, by playing on this knowledge, you can surprise your
players by subverting the clichés, setting it up as normal and then
turning it on its head.
You can make your own clichés too - after all, any action or event that
is repeated within a movie becomes a cliché itself. By introducing
reoccurring themes, motifs or occurrences, you can create your
own horror movie clichés that provoke the same response and
reaction as any of the classics.
1 3 4 C H A P T E R S I X : T O O L B O X O F T E R R O R
Classic Horror Movie Clichés
w Splitting up to explore the haunted house is never a good
idea.
w Don’t look behind you, don’t read the book, don’t watch the
video!
C H A P T E R S I X : T O O L B O X O F T E R R O R 1 3 5
E N T E R T H E M I N D O F A K I L L E R
STEEL STUDIO PRESENTS A P.I.H. PRODUCTION A FILM BY ARNOLD D. ROUTER aMICK ‘THE BEAR’ WIRE nJACK BOOTH
bCAROLE POLLOCKgSTUART IVESON uA. D. ATTACK LABSjBRIAN JACKS kARNOLD D. ROUTER
Killing Characters
Some GMs try to avoid killing characters, others go all guns
blazing to scalp as many of their players as they can. In Dead of
Night, neither approach works particularly well. As the victims of
a horror movie, at least some of the characters have to succumb
to the attentions of the monster, or else the horror will fall flat.
Similarly, if the characters die to the arbitrary whims of the GM
rather than the monster, the horror will prove to be frustrating
rather than scary.
Fortunately, the rules of the game don’t allow for just killing
characters off willy-nilly, which is where Survival Points and
Tension come in, which we’ve already touched on. Make use of
these mechanics to the full, use them to draw the players in, to
engage them in the story and to give them the genuine sense that
their characters are in peril. That way, when you have whittled
away a character’s Survival Points and finally deal the death blow,
the death will have far more impact, as the player will have played
an active part in the struggle to survive.
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Coming Back for More: Sequels & Series
Sure as sunset, any successful horror movie will spawn a sequel
or seven, in which the starring monster returns in increasingly
implausible manner and setting to wreak havoc on the rapidly
dwindling original cast. Sometimes a movie will merit a prequel,
in which the secrets and origins of the monster will be revealed in
painstaking detail, thoroughly eliminating any sense of mystery
that might have surrounded it. It’s fair to say that the law of
diminishing returns can be applied to horror movies and their
sequels, but just because sequels on the big screen tend to be
inferior to the original movie, doesn’t mean your own sequels
need to be! Simply place the same monster in a different situation
or with a different group of victims. Any survivors from the first
movie can return, older and wiser to offer sagely advice to the
younger and more attractive stars of the sequel, albeit with a
reduced number of Survival Points - surviving the first film is no
guarantee that they will survive the sequel, after all.
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CHAPTER SEVEN:
S
CHAPTER SEVEN:
S CENARIOS
There are four scenarios included in this chapter, pulling together
the various rules, techniques and advice that we’ve talked about
throughout the rest of the book. The scenarios are presented in
such a way as to be representative of how you might prepare
your own game and are open to a great degree of interpretation
by the GM.
www.steampowerpublishing.com
1 4 0 C H A P T E R S E V E N : S C E N A R I O S
UNHALLOWED
In the war between good and evil, good lost. The world lies in
smouldering ruins, ravaged by the war between heaven and hell.
The surviving remnants of humanity have been herded into great
camps by the demonic servants of Lucifer.
Tension
Escape and Protect checks should dominate, with the players
constantly escaping the demonic hordes.
Starting Tension: 4.
C H A P T E R S E V E N : S C E N A R I O S 1 4 1
Tension Thresholds:
Monsters
Eyeless
Those humans who do not willingly submit themselves to Lucifer’s
servitude are instead embraced by one of his servants, their skin
flaying from their body, their eyeballs bubbling out of their heads
and their souls gobbled down. The shell that remains becomes a
demon, a bestial and near-mindless creature hungry for the souls of
others. They are readily identifiable, hunched over with long nails,
broken shards of bone jutting through wounds and - most telling of
all - only a baleful green glow where their eyes once were.
Smell the Faithful: The Eyeless might not be able to see, but their
keen noses can smell out those who do not worship their dark
lord.
The Fate that Awaits us All: The Eyeless are a grim reminder
that all who do not submit to Lucifer will share their fate.
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The Fallen
Those humans who willingly submit to the service of Lucifer are spared
the fate of the Eyeless, instead becoming one of the Fallen. Although
most such creatures are merely vessels for the spirits of fallen angels
and higher-ranking demons, the real draw for volunteering for such
a role is that the truly corrupt are granted demonhood in their own
right, gaining enormous power and near immortality.
The Fallen are near indistinguishable from regular humans for the
most part, except that they visibly display the sins that they were
once most guilty of; flies buzz lazily around the grease-stained bulk
of the gluttonous and anger crackles around the wrathful like black
lightning. They are far more subtle than the Eyeless, attempting to
tempt the weak into joining the service of their dark master rather
than outright slaying them.
Identify: 5 Obscure: 5
Persuade: 4 Dissuade: 4 Corruption: 8
Escape: 5 Pursue: 5
Assault: 4 Protect: 4 Spawn: 8
Spawn: Where words fail, the eldritch powers of the Fallen will
succeed. A victim that will not turn to darkness willingly will
serve the demons in a different manner. Whenever the Fallen
succeeds at a Risk Check using its Spawn Specialisation, this
Specialisation may be triggered. The victim’s soul is marked. If the
victim is subsequently reduced to 0 Survival Points or less, this
Specialisation may be triggered again and the victim turned into an
Eyeless. The victim uses its existing stats, but replaces any existing
Specialisations with the same Specialisations as an Eyeless.
C H A P T E R S E V E N : S C E N A R I O S 1 4 3
The Infernal Hunt
Let loose the dogs of war! Or, in this case, the dogs of death. The four
horsemen ride the earth, the hounds of hell running at their feet.
Death rides through London upon his black charger, wings of blood
flapping behind him and the horn of the Infernal Hunt issuing out
its mournful cry. Death seeks out those souls that would escape his
liege, hunting them wherever they might try to hide, his infernal
hounds chasing them out into the open.
Identify: 6 Obscure: 4
Persuade: 4 Dissuade: 6
Escape: 2 Pursue: 6 No Escape: 8
Assault: 6 Protect: 4
Lucifer
At the heart of darkness stands Lucifer, the ultimate victor in
the war against his father’s kingdom. Lucifer now rules from
beneath the shattered dome of St. Paul’s Cathedral, now the First
Cathedral of the Morning Star Ascendant, from where he blesses
his worshippers. Lucifer is a fallen angel, and every bit as beautiful
and enchanting as his celestial brethren. He is an entrancing
personality, his eyes piercing the souls of all he surveys, knowing
their innermost wants and desires in a heartbeat.
Identify: 5 Obscure: 5
Persuade: 5 Dissuade: 3 Corruption: 9
Escape: 5 Pursue: 5
Assault: 6 Protect: 2 Implacable: 8
Survival Points: 5
1 4 4 C H A P T E R S E V E N : S C E N A R I O S
Implacable: Lucifer is, to most intents and purposes, immortal,
his angelic heritage and infernal powers protecting him from
mortal injury. This Specialisation can be used to defend against
physical attacks or to negate other circumstances that might harm
a mortal human. It can be triggered immediately after the monster
loses a Risk Check to negate the Survival Point loss, so long as the
loss stemmed from physical damage.
Scenes
The Church of St. John
The scenario starts in the crypt of St. John’s Church, on the
outskirts of North London. The survivors have been holed up here
for quite some time, but supplies are running low. Worse still, the
wards daubed on the walls of the church and the entrance to the
crypt, which once glowed brightly, now grow dimmer. One of the
doors to the church remains unwarded.
The game begins with a pounding at the barred door to the crypt
and a cry for help from a man claiming to be a survivor. His cries
turn to screams, and if the characters open the door they find him
being dragged up into the church by a pair of Eyeless Demons. He
is held prone in front of a Fallen, who proceeds to magically flay
the skin off him strip by strip. He will engage the characters in
conversation, trying to convert them to the cause, all the while
flaying the man.
C H A P T E R S E V E N : S C E N A R I O S 1 4 5
Let Loose the Hounds of Hell
Outside the church, all is ruin. Buildings remain intact but with
shattered windows and collapsed roofs. Smoke still drifts into the
sky. It is daylight, but the thick cloud of dust and smoke makes the
light faint and sickly. There are cars and vans parked or abandoned,
and a Survival Point will allow them to find one in working order.
Bodies are scattered here and there, sometimes being eaten by feral
dogs. When the Tension hits 10, a trumpet blares in the distance and
a nearby pack of dogs suddenly looks up, fire burning in their eyes.
The Infernal Hunt is here. The hunt comprises Death garbed in the
blood-red finery of an English huntsman, riding a huge black steed
with a pack of hellhounds baying at his feet. They give chase to the
characters through the streets of London. If they escape the hunt, the
Infernal Hunt can trigger its No Escape Specialisation to catch them
again, riding through the walls of buildings, tracking them down and
so on. Whether they escape the hunt or fight it does not matter, but
they will be inexorably herded towards the centre of the city.
The Riverbank
As the characters near the riverbank, piled high with rotting corpses,
they will catch sight of both St. Paul’s and what was once the Tate
Modern art gallery. The steps of St. Paul’s are thronged with people,
absolutely packed in all around the cathedral. The Tate, however,
appears abandoned apart from a beacon blazing on top of the
tower. The two are joined by the Millennium Bridge, which appears
guarded by demons. Closer inspection, whether by venturing near
or through a pair of binoculars, and an Identify check will reveal
that all is not as it seems. St. Paul’s is indeed surrounded by people,
but in amongst the crowd are Eyeless and Fallen. The Tate is also
not as it seems, for it is guarded by scattered, armed patrols of men
and women. It is up to the players which way they go next.
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The Sword of God, driven through his own belly, pins the angel’s
body to the floor and is the source of the warding. The Sword of God
can slay Lucifer, but taking it will cause the sanctuary to collapse.
The Resistance can be persuaded by the survivors to allow them to
take the sword, so long as they have a suitable plan to use it wisely.
As soon as it is drawn from the angel, the wards collapse and the
howls of approaching demons can be heard outside.
If the Tension has escalated high enough, Lucifer will be atop the
throne, blessing the faithful and imbuing them with the spirits of
his kin, turning them into Fallen. Those who are not so lucky or
pious are greeted by Fallen garbed in vestments and robes, who take
the victims’ heads in their hands and burn out their eyes, replacing
their souls with a Demon. If the Tension is not high enough, the
throne will be empty but the Fallen continue to greet the crowds.
C H A P T E R S E V E N : S C E N A R I O S 1 4 7
Lucifer can be slain by mundane means, although he has a fair
few Fallen and Demons to defend him from outright attack.
Sneaky characters can get close, but will have to resist his wiles
and charms. The Sword of God is the best hope for slaying the
Devil, for it is his Vulnerability. The battle with the Devil, whether
physical or psychological, should herald the climax of the scenario
- if the characters successfully slay him, they might just stand a
chance of rekindling the flame of hope. If the characters fall to
temptation or in combat with his servants, then an altogether
gloomier future awaits humanity.
Victims
Lieutenant Carl Jeffries
You were on shore leave from the Royal Marines in London when
the Big A went down. You were brought up a good Christian boy by
your parents, and still wear a cross around your neck, but you’re
not so sure about it anymore. The one thing you are sure about is
your duty to protect the weak and defend the helpless, and that’s
what you’re going to do. If only they did what you said it’d make
doing that a whole lot easier.
Identify: 4 Obscure: 6
Persuade: 4 Dissuade: 4 Orders are to be Obeyed: 8
Pursue: 5 Escape: 5
Assault: 4 Protect: 4 Anything’s a weapon in my hands: 8
Howard P. Saunders
Perhaps in some ways, the apocalypse happened at the right time,
as it got you out of a fraud trial. Sure, your carefully embezzled
funds are now worthless, but you’re still alive, aren’t you? And
with grand larceny to your name, you were hardly going to go to
heaven, were you? But you’re not one to rest on your laurels and
pat yourself on the back - in the new world order, you need to make
sure you come out on top.
1 4 8 C H A P T E R S E V E N : S C E N A R I O S
Reverend Hugo Winters
As a man of the cloth, someone who has devoted their entire life to
the worship of our lord Jesus Christ, you were rightly irked when
the rapture happened and you weren’t invited. Now you know the
truth - that god is dead and the war in heaven and on earth has
been lost - and that’s put you into an all together more awkward
theological conundrum. You don’t know what to believe any more,
except that your flock needs you and that in the heart of London
there exists a last remaining sanctuary. If only you could reach it.
Claire Grady
In your previous life, before all this, you were a mother and a wife.
But that’s all gone now, snatched away from you to be replaced by
this living nightmare. But you’re not going to lie down and die like
so many others. You’re going to fight, as all you’ve got left to give is
your own life... and soul.
Identify: 5 Obscure: 5
Persuade: 4 Dissuade: 4 Stern Voice: 8
Pursue: 5 Escape 5
Assault: 4 Protect: 4 Defend the family: 8
Nathan Warwick
Some call it the apocalypse, others the rapture, but for you it’s a
new beginning. Sure, the world might be turned upside down and
burnt to shit, but in this world you’re no longer a murderer and
a thief. Survival might be all there is to hope for now, but you do
know one thing - you’ve had enough of people telling you what to
do.
Identify: 5 Obscure: 5
Persuade: 4 Dissuade: 4 Threatening glower: 8
Pursue: 4 Escape: 4 Lie Low: 8
Assault: 6 Protect: 4
C H A P T E R S E V E N : S C E N A R I O S 1 4 9
Sins
Rather than assign characters a Bad Habit, before the game begins
cut out and fold up the following seven sins. Then have each player
randomly draw one of them - that is their Bad Habit for the game.
Envy - gain a Survival Point when you take something from someone
that they might later need.
1 5 0 C H A P T E R S E V E N : S C E N A R I O S
COLD FUSION
Cold Fusion centres around a cutting-edge power plant in northern
Canada on the day of an official visit by the recently elected Minister
for Energy; he’s here to get to the bottom of the secrecy surrounding
the huge expense of this plant. Those working at the plant are more
concerned with holding onto their jobs, but are also curious about
‘Material Zero’, an unknown composite that makes the fusion
process possible at such low energies. Material Zero is actually an
extraterrestrial substance reclaimed from an incident in Russia
decades ago. It has changed hands on the black market many times
since then. It also has a malevolent purpose of its own...
The mood of the scenario has the potential to veer between Survival
Horror and Black Comedy, with horrific goings on juxtaposed with
a cool sense of humour. The game is set in the icy and remote north
of Canada, but could happily be moved any other suitably remote
location.
Most of what you need to know about the scenario can be found on
the character sheets; it’s important that players don’t get to read
the sheets before the game starts, so it’s probably better to deal
them out randomly rather than let players choose characters.
Survival Points
You will need to prepare a special bag of Survival Points for this
scenario, consisting of an equal number of red & blue poker chips
or any similar substitute. Around 30 chips in total should be plenty,
made up of 15 red chips and 15 blue chips; everyone starts with 5
red chips for their Survival Points but these do not count towards
the red chips in the bag.
Whenever a player gains a Survival Point, they draw 1 from the bag;
when they lose a Survival Point due to losing conflicts, they must
lose a red chip if they have any left. If you want the game to tend
towards the harsh & grim, then they must also spend red chips
rather than blue for re-rolls and plot devices; if you want a chance
for happy, heroic endings, then players can spend either red or
blue for the above. Whenever blue chips are lost or spent for any
reason, they are placed back in the bag but red chips are always set
aside, not returned to the bag.
C H A P T E R S E V E N : S C E N A R I O S 1 5 1
Tension
Escape and Protect Checks should dominate, with the players
opting to flee rather than fight.
Tension Thresholds:
1 5 2 C H A P T E R S E V E N : S C E N A R I O S
Scenes
The Briefing
Jeanette Rankin, the plant manager, gives a final briefing to
her work force on the morning of the Minister’s visit, while the
Minister is briefed in the car about the plant’s senior staff. This
gives the players a chance to get into role and introduce their
characters to the other players. A presentation has been prepared
in the Conference Room of the Visitors’ Centre, which is a separate
building from the Fusion Centre, at the heart of which is the ‘Zero
Room’ where the actual fusion process takes place. There is also a
buffet laid on for the Minister, his entourage and the coach-load of
press who have turned up to cover the event. An important point to
drop into this scene is the approaching storm front that will soon
engulf the plant in a severe blizzard for several hours...
A Minor Incident
The story segues into this scene with a message on Dr. Marcus
Corbet’s PDA, telling him that the ‘relevant number’ (i.e. the
percentage of efficiency) from the Zero Room has gone up to 102.
This will keep slowly rising until any characters arrive in the Zero
Room to investigate; the beeping of the PDA should first be used
when Edgar Bentham, the minister, is questioning Dr. Corbet about
his work.
In the Zero Room, the technicians are concerned about a soft but
high-pitched whistling coming from the lattice of Material Zero
strands that form a web at the heart of the fusion chamber; there is
one hazard suit spare for the first player to take it, any subsequent
hazard suits require the expenditure of a Survival Point. Whenever
there as many characters as is reasonably possible in the control
centre or Zero Room, Material Zero goes critical. The readings for
energy efficiency spiral up quickly, accelerating as the numbers rise,
followed by a bright flash of blue light from the fusion chamber;
everyone close by must make a Protect check to avoid losing a
Survival Point.
Cold Snap
After the blue flash, all scientists and technicians in the Fusion
Centre are unconscious for a few minutes; also, the power goes
out across the plant, so anyone still in the Visitors’ Centre will be
aware that something has gone wrong.
C H A P T E R S E V E N : S C E N A R I O S 1 5 3
Almost all the NPCs in the Fusion Centre have now become frost
zombies; they are still alive, but bitterly cold, colder than any
human could actually survive. A layer of frost builds up on them
deeper and more obviously as the rest of the scenario progresses,
but to begin with, they just look pale, with a few ice-crystals in their
eye-lashes.
This is where the blue chips come into play; with the power out,
the blizzard wrapping the building and the frost zombies attacking
anyone who still has body heat (e.g. red chips), all the characters are
in danger of freezing to death or also becoming frost zombies! When
any player’s Survival Points are at least half blue chips, they begin
to feel extremely cold; when they have only blue chips and no reds,
they become a frost zombie! They lose all their current Bad Habits,
which are replaced by a single drive: absorb body heat from others.
Whenever a PC fails a Risk Check against a frost zombie, they lose 1
red chip; if the frost zombie is another PC, then that player gains 1
blue chip. Once a PC has become a frost zombie, they only gain blue
chips, not red.
Blizzard Conditions
The remainder of the game is a fight for survival; the blizzard
conditions make escape from the plant almost impossible for the
next few hours, but the frost zombies will soon spread from the
Fusion Centre to the Visitors’ Centre. PCs can attack the frost
zombies if they choose and get back into the Zero Room, where
the web of Material Zero has grown out from the fusion chamber
to fill the room with a gigantic, fractal snowflake sculpture
that is absorbing ever greater quantities of energy from the
environment.
If the web can be destroyed, the frost zombies collapse and simply
start to melt. On the other hand, if there are no victims left in the
power plant at any time (because they are dead, have become frost
zombies or have escaped) then Material Zero absorbs all the energy
available in North America and uses it to reconstruct itself into a
form capable of leaving the planet for good... killing hundreds of
millions of people in the process.
1 5 4 C H A P T E R S E V E N : S C E N A R I O S
To make the scenario last longer, and to give the characters
a fighting chance of a happy ending, you can adjust the ratio of
red-to-blue chips in the bag, from 1:1 to 2:1. Alternatively, the
characters’ own plans can turn against them; if they called in the
military whilst they were still human but have all now turned into
frost zombies, then the endgame can consist of a battle between the
frost zombies fighting to defend the Material Zero web against the
human attackers!
Monsters
Frost Zombies
Frost zombies are humans that have had their energy drained away
by Material Zero. They are still alive, but are so overcome by the
cold that they are driven by one thing: the need to steal the heat
of others. They can be reasoned with and remain lucid, but will
furiously seek out their warm-blooded prey to keep the cold at bay,
even if only for a moment.
Survival Points: 2-3 blue chips per group, with each point
representing a single frost zombie.
C H A P T E R S E V E N : S C E N A R I O S 1 5 5
Victims
Dr. Marcus Corbet: Lead Researcher
Early 40s, prematurely grey but physically fit.
Bad Habits:
Sabotage an attempt to find out more about Material Zero.
Try to analyse a dangerous situation from up close.
Put your fate entirely in another character’s hands.
Identify: 3 Obscure: 7
Persuade: 3 Dissuade: 5 Facts & Figures: 7
Pursue: 5 Escape: 5
Assault: 5 Protect: 3 Kick Boxing: 7
1 5 6 C H A P T E R S E V E N : S C E N A R I O S
numbers, not the people. If something’s not working, replace it;
this attitude has not won you any admirers, but it has meant that
every project you have been in charge of has been completed under
time and under budget. You will go to any lengths to make this
power plant a success and hold onto this job, even if that means
using & controlling the people who work for you, or even betraying
them. Dr. Corbet, the head of research, came to you recently with
concerns about the plant being too efficient! Nonsense! Luckily, he
wanted to keep this secret, so you agreed to ‘cover it up’ and then
disregarded what he had told you.
Bad Habits
Publicly humiliate any other character and enrage them.
Abandon all others to their fate in order to save just yourself.
Take an insane risk to save the plant or your spotless record.
Identify: 5 Obscure: 5
Persuade: 7 Dissuade: 1 Incisive Questions: 9
Pursue: 5 Escape: 5
Assault: 4 Protect: 4 Wrestling: 8
$1 billion for one new power plant is a lot of money, but for some
reason, the previous administration was happy to hide a lot of this
funding under other names, purportedly for other projects. After
wading through a morass of spreadsheets, confidential reports
and scientific papers, you realised you were being led astray by the
national security services. The only way to get to the bottom of this
was to visit the plant in person and review the facts on-site with
the people responsible. You have no compunctions about closing
down this plant and sacking everybody if you don’t get satisfactory
answers to your questions. This has now become an official visit,
with the press in attendance; you think those responsible for the
secrecy behind this project will not appreciate being in the spotlight.
Nothing is going to stop you from exposing the truth: not the people
here, not the weather and certainly not the secret service.
Bad Habits:
Threaten to ruin any other character’s career.
Take time out for an intimate encounter with another character.
Provide a delay or distraction that allows other characters to
escape imminent danger.
C H A P T E R S E V E N : S C E N A R I O S 1 5 7
Amanda Yewtree, Chief Technician
Early 30s, dark and slender.
Identify: 6 Obscure: 4
Persuade: 4 Dissuade: 4 Mechanical Engineering: 8
Pursue: 3 Escape: 5 Rock Climbing: 7
Assault: 4 Protect: 6
This whole project is a crock of shit: the brains of the outfit, Dr. Corbet,
insists that all measurements & readings go directly to him.
The plant manager, Ms. Rankin, doesn’t give a damn for worker
welfare and deals with most complaints by sacking the complainer.
You don’t even know what this ‘Material Zero’ that the central
components are made of really is. At least you’ve got Dan, the head
of security, on your side; you both have a similar sense of humour
regarding the running of this place and enjoy making bets on what
will go wrong next. On the subject of things going wrong, you’re
sure there has been unlogged access to the ‘Zero Room’, where the
fusion process takes place. There’s no sign of a security breach,
but you’re sure someone has been in there when no presence was
logged; they might have tampered with some of the instruments,
but you don’t have the evidence to prove it yet.
Bad Habits:
Go off on your own to investigate something.
Openly refuse to answer another character’s questions about
your work.
Take time out for an intimate encounter with another character.
One of the only things that keeps you sane working here is the
company of Amanda, the chief technician; you keep each other
going everyday with your jokes about the management of the plant
and making bets on what idiocy they will pursue next. The official
visit by the new Minister for Energy has been a colossal headache,
especially when your old friend Phil crawled out of the woodwork
and wangled himself a press pass to the event. He knows enough
1 5 8 C H A P T E R S E V E N : S C E N A R I O S
about your dodgy past to blow your security clearance out of the
water, but he swears that all he wants is an exclusive story for his
website. He’s a crank, but he’s harmless and he’s only one more
reporter of the dozens coming today. As long as no-one makes a
connection between the two of you, it should all go flawlessly.
Bad Habits:
Give your gun to any other character.
Go into a jealous rage over the attention Amanda gives to any
other character.
Use violence against another character when words would be
more appropriate.
You’ve followed the trail for years, across continents, through secret
agencies and it has brought you here, where to your amazement
your old friend Dan is working as head of security. A little friendly
blackmail (Dan certainly doesn’t want his shady past coming out)
got you access as a reporter for a provincial Canadian newspaper
and now you are closer than ever to your Holy Grail: genuine proof
of alien visitation to Earth! ‘Material Zero’, as they have dubbed it,
was recovered from an extra-terrestrial crash site decades ago and
has changed hands many times since then. You don’t know what
they are doing with it here, you just want a sample of it for yourself
to begin the ultimate exposé and you will stop at nothing to get it.
You don’t regret lying to Dan about your intentions and you won’t
regret who you have to hurt to get your hands on Material Zero.
Bad Habits:
Go off on your own to look for something.
Try to persuade another character about your extra-terrestrial
obsessions.
Take an insane risk to get what you want or need.
C H A P T E R S E V E N : S C E N A R I O S 1 5 9
DUST
Dust is a Hollywood remake of an Asian horror movie in the vein of
Dark Water or The Grudge. It revolves around the occupants of an
apartment block, newly refurbished in the wake of a terrible fire that
killed a mother and her young daughter. The fire was no accident,
however, for it was started to hide the murder of the family by the
jealous father. The ghosts of the dead now haunt the apartment,
their dreams and emotions spilling out into the inhabitants as they
yearn for vengeance and peace.
A Relationship Map
The relationships between Terrence, Eleanor, Anna and the other
characters is key to understanding how to best manipulate and
scare them. The relationship map below should give you an idea
how everybody’s motivations fit together.
Lillian Gary
Neil Cain
Neighbour Estranged
Husband
Melanie Annabelle
Stanford
Mother Potential
Playmate
Joe
1 6 0 C H A P T E R S E V E N : S C E N A R I O S
Background
Eleanor had a string of affairs, as she was stuck in a marriage with
a man she no longer loved. Terry, her husband, grew steadily more
jealous, believing incorrectly that she was having an affair with
their neighbour, Benjamin. Terry murdered Eleanor in a jealous
rage but was forced to kill his daughter too, as she woke up and saw
him kill her mother. Terry hid Anna’s body in the wall and buried
Eleanor under the basement floor. He then panicked, starting a fire
in the basement to hide the evidence. Unbeknownst to Terry, Anna
was still alive and burned to death, trapped in the wall.
A year later the block is refurbished and families move back in. The
ghosts of Eleanor and Anna are waiting for them.
Tension
Obscure and Dissuade checks should be prevalent, with the characters
unsure as to what is going on but thoroughly creeped out.
Tension Thresholds:
C H A P T E R S E V E N : S C E N A R I O S 1 6 1
Tension 10 - Cracks appear in most of the walls and ceilings.
Everything is coated in plaster dust. The smell of smoke and burnt
plastic fills the air. The handprints of a child appear burnt into the
walls throughout the building.
Monsters
Anna
Anna, Eleanor and Terry’s murdered daughter, roams the hallways
and rooms of the building as a ghost. She is not actually evil, but
lonely and no longer in possession of any human morality or
restraint. She likes scaring people, as it’s funny, and will react badly
to slights against her. She appears much as she did in life, albeit
ghostly pale. When she is angered or the Tension cranks upwards
she appears far more ghastly - with cracked, almost plaster-like
skin, smouldering around the edges, her nightie stained with blood
pouring from a wound in the side of her head.
Identify: 4 Obscure: 6
Persuade: 2 Dissuade: 6 Fright: 8
Pursue: 7 Escape: 3
Assault: 3 Protect: 3 Control fire: 9 Implacable: 7
Survival Points: 5
Control Fire: Killed by the smoke and flame that Terry started to
hide the evidence of her mother’s murder, Anna can control fire,
causing it to lick up the walls when angered.
1 6 2 C H A P T E R S E V E N : S C E N A R I O S
Implacable: Anna is insubstantial and physical attacks pass right
through her. This Specialisation can be used to defend against
physical attacks or to negate other circumstances that might cause
Anna harm. It can be triggered immediately after Anna loses a Risk
Check to negate the Survival Point loss, so long as the loss stemmed
from physical damage.
Eleanor
As the residents move into the building, Eleanor’s spirit stirs in the
grave beneath the building. As she wakes, her dead dreams spill
over into the occupants, dreams of being buried alive and being
smothered by earth and concrete. Some of the dreams involve her
murder, of being beaten to death with a hammer by Terry. Eleanor
is trapped in the concrete, but desperately wants to escape to save
her daughter and exact revenge for her murder. She is angry and
confused, and far from lucid.
Her spirit cannot leave the basement in the same way as Anna’s
ghost, but she is as part of the building now as the bricks and
mortar. As she wakes further and her vengeance grows, the
building will crack and disintegrate more and more. She manifests
to the residents of the building as cracks in the walls and plaster
dust falling from the ceiling - sometimes this will appear to freeze in
the air and form the shape of a woman standing in the room.
Identify: 4 Obscure: 6
Persuade: 2 Dissuade: 6 Curse: 9
Pursue: 7 Escape: 3
Assault: 3 Protect: 3 Legion: 9 Just Bricks: 7
Survival Points: 5
C H A P T E R S E V E N : S C E N A R I O S 1 6 3
Curse: Eleanor’s spirit sleeps restlessly, her nightmares spilling over
into the dreams of the living. With a successful Curse Check against
the victim’s Protect, this Specialisation may be triggered. Eleanor
can modify the victim’s next Conflict Check up or down by 5.
Legion: Eleanor can use her control over the building to lash out at
everyone caught within its walls, causing bricks and mortar to fall
on its victims and gas pipes to explode. Whenever successful in a Risk
Check, this Specialisation may be triggered to force every opponent
in the room to lose a Survival Point as well as the original target.
Terrence
Of course, Terry is the real monster of the piece, but he is just a
man. He is troubled by Eleanor’s dreams and is keeping an eye on
the house, convinced that she may still be alive. Any character who
has shared Eleanor’s dreams of her murder will recognise Terry.
Once the ghosts have been put to rest and the truth outed, Terry
can be dealt with however the characters see fit. They might decide
to turn him over to the police - the remains of both Eleanor and
Anna are evidence enough to convict him - or they might decide to
sort him out themselves.
Survival Points: 2
Bully: Terry likes to solve problems with his fists and a raised voice,
and that included his marriage.
1 6 4 C H A P T E R S E V E N : S C E N A R I O S
Scenes
The scenes in this scenario can occur in any order you see fit. Some
of them may even repeat over the course of the story. Keep an eye
on the Tension and up the ante as necessary.
The Building
The building is a three-storey brownstone tenement block in a non-
descript neighbourhood. There are two apartments on each floor,
accessed from a central hallway. Each apartment has a number of
rooms as required. They’re not huge, but big enough to suit the
needs of a horror movie - kids sneaking out at night past the parents
in the living room, large windows that lead on to fire escapes, air
ducts large enough to crawl through and so on.
Cracking Up
The first thing that any of the characters notice as being odd about
the building is the appearance of cracks in the plaster of their newly
refurbished apartments. At first these will simply appear overnight
or whilst they are out at work. Later on they will appear while the
character is watching, and as the Tension really racks up they will
seem to act malevolently towards the victim, moving almost like
snakes up the walls.
At the same time, dust will begin to fall from the ceiling, steadily
coating everything in a thin layer. Characters might notice this at
first when they come to make a cup of tea and find all their mugs
filled with dust, when dust falls into their dinner as they are about
to eat it or when they wake up to find themselves covered.
C H A P T E R S E V E N : S C E N A R I O S 1 6 5
As the Tension progresses, the dust will fall in ever-increasing
quantities. Sometimes it will appear to freeze in the air as it falls,
almost forming the shape of a woman.
The Watcher
Several of the characters have reason to suspect that they are being
followed or watched, and at one point early on in the story may well
spot a man standing under the street lamp outside, watching them.
If they race outside, he will be gone. Despite who they may suspect
it is, this is Terrence, who has been plagued by the same dreams as
the characters. Terrence will return at various points during the
scenario, possibly even coming as far as the doorway at one point.
A character who has shared Eleanor’s dream of her murder will
recognise Terry with a successful Identify check.
Anna
The first indication of the supernatural is the appearance of Anna.
In theory any of the characters can see the ghost of Anna, but she
hides herself from most of them. She will appear to Joe, trying to
get him to play with her as well as to get him into trouble - she will
keep him up laughing and singing after bedtime, or encourage him
to sneak out and up to her apartment (see Apartment 6, below).
She will also try to get Joe in trouble with his mother, Melanie,
by leaving taps running, scattering toys about or drawing on the
walls. Melanie might also discover more sinister evidence, such as
a burnt doll with a hand print melted into the plastic, or a little
girl’s charred shoe.
Mrs Neil
Mrs Neil lives in Apartment 1. She is a typically nosy neighbour,
always watching the comings and goings within the building and
on the street outside. She should come across as a little bit creepy
and unhinged, always saying wildly inappropriate things, talking
as though you weren’t there or reacting to unseen people. Mrs Neil
1 6 6 C H A P T E R S E V E N : S C E N A R I O S
provides a good source of information, as she has her suspicions
about what really happened to the family from upstairs, filling in
some of the backstory. As the story progresses, Mrs Neil might find
herself on the receiving end of Eleanor’s anger at her nosiness, or
perhaps Terry will decide to cover up one final witness by paying
her a late-night visit.
An Unwelcome Guest
Flat 5 is unoccupied most of the time, except when a businessman,
Drew, brings his mistress there for an afternoon or evening of
entertainment. One of the characters notices Drew and his lady
friend arriving, both of them studiously trying to avoid eye contact.
Eleanor, remembering her own affairs, lashes out at the lovers out
of a mix of jealousy and guilt, electrocuting them as they shower
together. Benjamin might notice something is wrong when he
notices Drew’s car still outside, long after he normally would go.
Jessica will almost certainly go and investigate as the water from
the still-running shower begins to leak through her ceiling.
Apartment 6
Apartment 6, on the top floor, stands vacant. The flat is still
undergoing renovation work, the interior garbed in dust cloths and
plastic sheets suspended from the ceiling. Some of the walls are as
yet incomplete, absent plaster and panelling exposing the cavities
between the bricks. Apartment 6 was the site of Eleanor and Anna’s
murder, and the atmosphere remains oppressive and creepy here.
The sheets seem to rustle even when the window is not open, and
the doors slam closed or creek open all by themselves. Footprints
in the plaster dust seem to appear all by themselves.
C H A P T E R S E V E N : S C E N A R I O S 1 6 7
The Cellar
Up until now the players may assume that there is only one ghost
- that of Anna. It is only after Anna’s remains have been removed
from the wall and buried, and the building’s anger continues to
build, that they will realise that there is another ghost here too. The
cracks lead down to the cellar, threatening to bring the building
tumbling down on top of them. Eleanor’s vengeful spirit will not
let the characters get down to the basement without a fight. Once
down there, the air fills with steam and smoke as the boiler and
pipes begin to buckle and burst. An Identify Check will reveal the
area of slightly newer concrete in one of the storerooms where
Eleanor’s body can be found. The discovery of her remains will put
her to rest, so long as Anna’s body has also been found.
Victims
Jessica, Apartment number 3
This is your first time in the big city and, under other circumstances,
you would be loving it. You’ve got it all: the job, the gym, and now
this fantastic new flat; everything except a family. When your young
daughter, Trish, died suddenly of meningitis, you could no longer
face even talking to your husband, Gary, and you ran, making a
new life for yourself and never telling him where you went. And
now he’s hired a private investigator to find you. Well, you assume
he’s a private investigator, as the guy seems to spend an awful lot
of time waiting outside the building.
Identify: 4 Obscure: 6
Persuade: 4 Dissuade: 4 Empathise: 8
Pursue: 5 Escape: 5
Assault: 5 Protect: 5
Identify: 6 Obscure: 4
Persuade: 5 Dissuade: 5
Pursue: 5 Escape: 5
Assault: 4 Protect: 4 Protect Joe: 8
1 6 8 C H A P T E R S E V E N : S C E N A R I O S
Joe, Apartment number 4
No matter how many times mummy says it, your new home isn’t
as good as your old home. Your new bedroom might be bigger, and
mummy and daddy aren’t shouting any more, but your old house
didn’t have any ghosts. And no matter how much you tell them not
to, they keep on staring at you.
*You can spend a Survival Point to try to see or talk with a ghost.
C H A P T E R S E V E N : S C E N A R I O S 1 6 9
WHEN JOHNNY CAME HOME
This scenario takes place in a suburb of a medium-sized town and in
the old, abandoned industrial estate nearby. In this estate, there is
a derelict mannequin warehouse where the fabric between worlds
is weak. An entity from somewhere else, known simply as the Thing
in the Mirror, has started bleeding through into our world and it
wants to reproduce. It has been putting some of its life essence into
the mannequins, making them into its children. The mannequins
are slow and awkward, though, and have trouble even walking.
Tension
Escape and Protect checks should be frequent, encouraging the
characters to behave like kids, fleeing from danger and standing up
for their mates.
Starting Tension: 3.
1 7 0 C H A P T E R S E V E N : S C E N A R I O S
Characters
The characters are all older children or young teenagers, either
siblings of Johnny or, depending on the number of players, siblings
of Simon from the house next door. Before you start play, create
characters as normal, but make sure that Specialisations and Bad
Habits are appropriate for a child. It would help if some of the
characters were around the same age, so that any scenes taking
place in their school can involve as many characters as possible.
Monsters
The Thing in the Mirror
The main threat comes from The Thing in the Mirror. It is an
entity from another dimension, and has seized the opportunity
to spread into our world through the weak spot in the derelict
Knight Brothers warehouse. The Thing itself does not exist in our
dimension and only manifests as disembodied eyes shown in every
reflective surface in the warehouse - mainly old mirrors and bits
of broken windows. It can also extrude tendrils of mirrored ooze
through the reflections, which it uses to ensnare foes and to imbue
the mannequins with its life force.
Identify: 7 Obscure: 3
Persuade: 3 Dissuade: 7
Pursue: 7 Escape: 1 Mirrored Tendrils: 10
Assault: 5 Protect: 1 Legion: 10
Create Mannequins: 9
Survival Points: 5
C H A P T E R S E V E N : S C E N A R I O S 1 7 1
Create Mannequins: When a victim is lured into the midst of the
mannequins and subdued, one of the mannequins can steal their
form, leaving the victim as a mannequin that bears a disturbing
resemblance to the person they once were. This person is not dead,
but simply trapped in cold, brittle plastic. If The Thing in the Mirror
is destroyed, the victims will be returned to flesh. Of course, if they
were damaged in their fragile mannequin form, the same damage
will be present when they return to flesh, possibly resulting in their
immediate death.
The Cuckoos
Once a mannequin takes the form of a victim, it can leave the
warehouse in search of fresh victims to give life to its siblings. It
also has the memories of its victim to work with, and will use these
to try to build trust with its victims. There are certain things that
give the Cuckoos away, though: they are slow and emotionless in
speech, they are irritated by noise and fast movements around
them and when they rest, they are absolutely motionless.
Their main form of defence is to tell lies to try to turn people against
one another. They will blame their actions on innocent parties, frame
people for crimes that haven’t occurred, or simply break down the
barriers of trust between people who may band against them.
At the start of play, there are only three Cuckoos: Johnny and
Simon, and the watchman who patrols the old industrial estate.
Survival Points: 2
1 7 2 C H A P T E R S E V E N : S C E N A R I O S
Tell Lies: The Cuckoo’s main form of defence is to tell lies to others,
trying to turn people against one another. Depending on how
much damage these lies can do in a given situation, some conflicts
involving them may be Risky.
Non-Player Characters
Johnny and his siblings live with their mother and father, both
of whom are busy professionals, trying to balance their careers
with looking after a large family. The careers are winning out at
the moment, especially now the children are a bit older, and both
parents are often out or busy with work at home and will have little
patience for sibling squabbles or strange stories.
Simon’s parents are divorced, and he and any siblings are being
raised solely by their mother. She is currently having to work two
jobs to make ends meet, and is rarely available. Simon has been
taking responsibility for his siblings more and more recently.
C H A P T E R S E V E N : S C E N A R I O S 1 7 3
Stanley Venables, the watchman over at the abandoned industrial
estate, is a kindly old man who has been doing this job since retiring
from the insurance industry. Sadly, he has already been replaced by
a Cuckoo and is trapped in plastic within the warehouse. The Cuckoo
lurks around the warehouse, largely to make sure that those who go
in do not escape. He may also try to trick people into going in if they
are lurking outside.
Locations
Home: The house where the player characters live is a typical
suburban house with a reasonably large garden. It backs onto some
playing fields, and beyond there is a patch of woodland. If there are
two groups of player characters in separate houses, they are next
door to each other.
St. Agnes: Just on the other side of the woods is St. Agnes, the
school that the characters attend, along with Johnny and Simon.
1 7 4 C H A P T E R S E V E N : S C E N A R I O S
The warehouse area is a single large room, filled with the rusted
remains of racking. The sounds of pigeons can be heard everywhere,
and the air smells foul with them. One corner of the room has been
largely cleared of debris, slowly and carefully, by the mannequins.
It is now filled with a few dozen mannequins, some of which will
bear a disturbing similarity to Johnny, Simon, the security guard
and anyone else who has gone missing during the course of the
scenario. The walls surrounding them are covered with every bit
of mirror and glass the mannequins have been able to salvage, and
eyes of all shapes, sizes and colours can be seen reflected in them.
Scenes
Missing Siblings
The scenario opens with one of the characters, who shares a room
with Johnny, waking in the middle of the night to find the bedroom
window open and Johnny missing. This could also be reflected with
a similar scene next door if Simon’s brother is also a character.
Johnny is generally a good boy and has not done something like
this before, but Simon is a bit more of a tearaway, and the instigator
of the dare. They have crept out to the abandoned warehouse to get a
trophy of some description to prove their bravery. By the time their
absence is noticed, they have already been replaced by Cuckoos.
The Cuckoos don’t sleep, so they will spend the remainder of the
night at home sitting on their beds, completely still. They will
be impatient if questioned by the children, and may even react
violently if provoked enough.
C H A P T E R S E V E N : S C E N A R I O S 1 7 5
School Days
The following day, the children and the Cuckoos will be back at
school. Neither Johnny nor Simon have been bullies in the past,
but the Cuckoos are irritated by all the screaming kids running
around, and will react by doing things like tripping a running child
so they land badly or holding a child down roughly and telling them
that movement is a privilege, not a right. This should happen to at
least one of the characters.
After School
After school, if they get a chance they will retire back to their clubhouse
to discuss plans. Their impatience with movement and noise leads
to them catching and killing any small animals or birds in the area.
They nail the bodies to the trees surrounding the clearings. Some of
the birds are still alive when this happens, and their unnervingly
human screams can be heard throughout the woods.
Back at their houses, Johnny and Simon will plan to replace their
parents as soon as they get an opportunity. If their siblings are
attempting to interfere, or are trying to tell their parents about
violent incidents during the day, they will use a combination of
lying to adults and threatening the kids to keep the situation under
control. They will back their threats up with violence if necessary,
such as arranging for a nosy sibling to fall down the stairs. They
know that their window of opportunity is small and they may even
escalate to murder if necessary, although they would rather keep
victims alive and take them to the warehouse.
1 7 6 C H A P T E R S E V E N : S C E N A R I O S
If the characters don’t manage to follow any of the Cuckoos or their
victims out to the warehouse, the Cuckoos will try to lure them
there in turn, or turn violent and drag them there by force. Once
there they will be attacked and subdued by the mannequins and
replaced by a Cuckoo of their own.
C H A P T E R S E V E N : S C E N A R I O S 1 7 7
THEY OUTLIVED THE DINOSAURS, NOW THEY WILL OUTLIVE US
STANSFIELD-STOKES PRESENTS A FILM BY LUCY ROW aHIRO NORIKO nCRAIG BOOTH
gKELLER KING p A.P. HANSEN jJOHN POLLOCK vAARON GOULDING kRICHARD HUNT
APPE
A P P E N DNIDXI XO NOEN: E : SELECT
SEL ECTED
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MMEEDDIO
MOVIES
Hundreds of horror movies were watched during the making of
Dead of Night second edition. Many of them were good, others less
so. Almost all were born of Scott Dorward’s infamous movie library,
for which I am eternally grateful. There are too many to list here, so
this is a selection of the movies that best capture what a good Dead
of Night game should be. A complete mediography of all the movies
mentioned in this book can be found on our website.
A P P E N D I X O N E : S E L E C T E D M E D I O G R A P H Y 1 7 9
BOOKS
Although the source material for Dead of Night primarily stems
from the cinema and straight-to-DVD movie, there are a handful of
books that encapsulate a good Dead of Night game too.
REFERENCE
The following reference guides were invaluable in researching the
second edition, in particular the Genre and Creating your Monster
chapters:
1 8 0 A P P E N D I X O N E : S E L E C T E D M E D I O G R A P H Y
APPENDIX TWO:
I N DE X
APPENDIX TWO:
A
Alien Intelligence 65
Asian Horror 95, 160
Assault 9, 15-17
Attributes 9, 19-21
Assault 9, 15-17
Dissuade 9, 12-13
Escape 9, 15
Identify 9-11
Obscure 9-11, 14
Persuade 9, 12-13
Protect 9, 16-17
Pursue 9, 11, 14
B
Bad Habits 22-23, 35
Beast Within 50, 58, 84, 90
Black Comedy 104, 152
Black Ooze 63
Body Horror 106-107
C
Characters 4, 8-23, 112-113, 118-119, 131
(Creation)
Concept 8
Attributes 9
Specialisations 19-21
Survival Points 22
Bad Habits 22-23
Killing 137
Checks 26-30
Modifying 40-41
Conflict Check 28, 30
Risk Check 30, 34, 44, 125
Task Check 9, 26-27
Circumstance 42-44, 46
Clichés 22-23, 35, 119, 132, 134-135
Corrupter 50, 60, 107
A P P E N D I X T W O : I N D E X 1 8 1
D
Dissuade 9, 12-13
E
Escape 9, 15
Extended Actions 27
F
Formless Horror 50, 68, 92, 95-96, 107
G
Genre 5, 42, 45-46, 80, 122, 134
Asian Horror 95, 160
Black Comedy 104, 152
Body Horror 106-107
Ghost Stories 92-93
Lovecraftian Horror 102-103
Monster Movie 84-85, 90, 104, 141
Psychological Horror 92, 100-101, 170
Slasher 81, 83, 89, 104, 137
Splatter 86-87, 89, 137
Vampire Movies 88-89
Werewolf Movies 90-91
Zombie Apocalypse 98-99, 152
Getting Started 5
Ghost 55, 92-93, 95-96, 162-164, 169
Ghost Story 92-93
H
Haunted House 68-69, 92-93
Horde 50, 64, 66, 68, 98, 104
Hunter 50, 56, 84, 90, 104
I
Identify 9-11
Impostor 50, 62-64
Initiative 31-32, 125
Intensity 42, 44-46
Isolation 113, 118
L
Let it Ride 27
Lovecraftian Horror 102-103
M
Masked Killer 53
Monster Movie 84-85, 90, 104, 141
1 8 2 A P P E N D I X T W O : I N D E X
Monsters 5, 41, 47-77
(Designing)
Archetypes 50-71
Monstrous Specialisations 30, 73-76
Motivation 49, 73
Vulnerabilities 30, 33, 76-77
Monstrous Archetypes 50
Beast Within 50, 58, 84, 90
Corrupter 50, 60, 107
Formless Horror 50, 68, 92, 95-96, 107
Horde 50, 64, 66, 68, 98, 104
Hunter 50, 56, 84, 90, 104
Impostor 50, 62-64
Puppet Master 50, 64
Thing from Beyond 50, 70, 103
Unstoppable Killer 50, 52, 81, 83-84, 86, 104
Vengeful Dead 50, 54, 92-93, 95-96
Monstrous Specialisations 30, 73-76
Triggering 73
Mood 42-43, 46, 122, 134
N
NPCs 112, 114, 118-120, 131
O
Obscure 9-11, 14
One-shots 111, 117
P
Persuade 9, 12-13
Preparation 111-112, 117
Protect 9, 16-17
Psychological Horror 92, 100-101, 170
Puppet Master 50, 64
Pursue 9, 11, 14
R
Relationships 113, 119, 131-132, 160
Risk Check 30, 34, 44, 125
S
Sequels 36, 138
Shadow from Outer Space 71
Slasher 81, 83, 89, 104, 137
Specialisations 9, 19-20
Gaining 21, 35
Maximising 21
Monstrous 73-76
Using 21
A P P E N D I X T W O : I N D E X 1 8 3
Splatter 86-87, 89, 137
Survival Points 4, 21-23, 32-33, 38, 41, 43, 45, 73, 122-125
Customising 123
Economy 123
Gaining 35-36
Losing 30, 34-35, 38, 75-77
Spending 34-35
T
Target Number 26, 28
Task Check 9, 26-27
Tension 4-5, 36, 38-40, 42-46, 80, 122-124
Circumstance 42-44, 46
Genre 5, 42, 45-46, 80, 122, 134
Intensity 42, 44-46
Mood 42-43, 46, 122, 134
Monsters and 41
Threshold 40
Thing from Beyond, the 50, 70, 103
U
Unstoppable Killer 50, 52, 81, 83-84, 86, 104
V
Vampire 57, 88-89
Vampire Movies 88-89
Vengeful Dead 50, 54, 92-93, 95-96
Vulnerabilities 30, 73, 76-77
Uncovering 10, 76
W
Werewolf 59, 90-91
Werewolf Movies 90-91
Witch 61
Z
Zombie 67, 98-99
Zombie Apocalypse 98-99, 152
1 8 4 A P P E N D I X T W O : I N D E X
VICTIM NAME : NOTES :
Identify / Obscure
Persuade / Dissuade
Escape / Pursue
Assault / Protect
© 2010 Steampower Publishing. Permission granted to copy for personal use only.
Identify / Obscure
Persuade / Dissuade
Escape / Pursue
Assault / Protect
© 2010 Steampower Publishing. Permission granted to copy for personal use only.