I had to take a break after a post daily for 31 days (with a couple exceptions). The blog is supposed to be fun, not work!
Still working sporadically on the Space Gits game coming up, and I've decided to try & see if I can do a bit of horror-styled gaming. We had an interesting conversation last night rather than gaming, so I know (a) that the game is dwindling to its conclusion as the current GM does the same thing I do when getting tired of running! and (b) I need to start working a bit harder for the game as it will start soon. But one of the players was talking about how can you get the sense of horror in an RPG game? Gore is easy, but how to portray that creeping sense of dread and pressure? Of course, I am not a fan of horror (and less so of splatter gore stuff. I have a sensitive mind and stomach! One of the reasons I run PG-13 games basically).
I'll be taking a mostly Alfred Hitchcock approach if I can: hint at things, try to set the scenes but try & let players imaginations do more than me. So I need to make a bunch of little snippets I can inject into the game: flickering lights, odd sounds, the grav net fluctuating. (Note: grav net came from a Closed and Common Orbit which was a really good book (as was the 1st) and really posits some very interesting questions about what a person is. And 99% sure grav net was used before that but that's where I last read it). I have 3 decks of the station even though the image I have of the station I want has a deck plan, I want something a bit less Traveller-like and more complicated. Of course, stitching together maps from different sources is a bit clunky but good enough for me.
I did do a few characters and the aliens in the game, so need to polish those up and get them actually ready to play. As I am using one of the 0-Hr maps for their ship, I'll probably do a quick write up of that and the crew of mercenaries of which they are a part. I have 3 players, and the ship is pretty large, so I need some crew and of course a couple squads or so of NPC mercenaries. Red shirts in this case to show how dangerous it may be. I'll just mook the NPCs - no need to really go through char gen, just get their stats needed and personality quirks so I can at least attempt to differentiate them. The players I am with who run games are really good at doing NPCs and I am jealous of that.
For what was a colony ship (this is the cargo version of the Atlas) it works out well for a mercenary group as there is also a drop-ship version. The only difference was the bottom part. But there are 2 barracks, so I'll have 2 squads. I have things to do in the next few weeks!
And this is a short game - 2-3 sessions. Maybe more if we're having fun. But no grand plot - just a single scenario.
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| 0-Hr Atlas |
