I'm just going to mention a couple of potential scenarios prompted by things I've seen or read recently:
1. PCs are modern day back-packers, across Europe (or possibly further East). They end up staying somewhere they really don't want to stay... (inspired by watching the last 20 minutes of Hostel on TV last night)
2. PCs are Italian nobles, shipwrecked on a mysterious island, in the 16th/17th century. This would actually Call of Cthulhu crossed with Shakespeare's 'The Tempest'...
Probably using BRP CoC rules, the latter would have pregens based on the characters from the play. If there's any interest I might be able to sort something out for mid/late next year. Maybe earlier if I get an really enthusiastic response...
Hi YS!
The lyrics to Eagles´ Hotel California has potential to rhyme with your first idea. I´m quite sure Hostel is a bit more blood and gore, but the basics are the same. (haven´t seen the movie though...) They check in but can´t check out!
Are you going to run it?
TVblog The soul trembles before emptiness and desires contact at any price. Doctor Glass
"It is invigorating, being asked personal questions." "Makes one feel desired." Luv (BR2049)
If you want to do Shakespeare, I think that Othello is a more likely pick for a Mythos story. Just think about it.
1. Othello=commanding soldier (driven mad at a certain point)
2. Iago=toughened old soldier, maybe mercenary or P.I., who betrays his commander, making a bigger opportunity for the forces of chaos (he has some great lines that could have come straight out of a Lovecraft, about the inversion of natural order)
3. Cassio=the Scholar. Enough said.
4. The Turk/Ottoman (the reason Othello is called to go defend a remote island)=a powerful necromancer
All the characters are there. Maybe you could set it in gaslight, colonial, or classic Arkham instead of Italy, but either way...
'Hotel California' might be a little too King in Yellow for what I was thinking. The Hostel is a lot grittier (not unlike the Saw films, although from what I saw was mainly about gruesome tortures than elaborate traps). The characters would be fighting for their lives, not their minds, and would be trying to escape.
It'd also be based upon visits to the eastern parts of the Czech Republic, just because a couple of visits to one particular small town gives me a little experience to draw on for descriptive purposes (and for source photos). I'd run it if people were really interested.
As an aside, I did start writing a piece that combined my trips to the Czech Republic with the King in Yellow mythos. But it would be a completely different sort of story to the one I'm proposing to run here.
In reference to the Shakespeare play, I chose the Tempest because I'm familiar with it from my English exams way back. It's got characters such as the 'half-man half-fish' Caliban, an island that used to be home to a witch and is now home to a sorcerer, and all manner of 'spirits'. Whilst I could do a game based around Othello, I'd need to do a considerable amount more research. Plus I'd only end up trying to tackle The Tempest again anyway, since it's got so much mythos potential!
Both of these, of course, rely on A, some willing participants and B, having enough time to create a rough skeleton of a scenario. I won't work on part B until I've got part A sorted out.
Saw is a bit deterministic. The characters have all the reactions that jigsaw has predicted. The story of Hostel is more crude, but at least the characters don't have to fight against a genius who know exactly what they will do. But it would be interesting to explore more the psychologycal aspects of the fear, and less the mutilations.
Yep. I was thinking more survival horror than calculated slaughter, in the style of all those early horror movies where it was screwed up odd-balls you had to escape from, and there was no guarantee of the good guys winning. And no moral. Just a bunch of unfortunate people wandering into the wrong place at the wrong time.
The Hostel conceit, of having a nice little holiday town that actually isn't all that nice appealed to me. I think I'll be steering more towards the mythos than wholesale gore, more insanity inducing than vomit inducing. But there's room for both, I suppose...
Hell, let's chuck a few more ideas on this thread and see if anyone bites.
3. Something simple and Delta Greenish, like 'Music From a Darkened Room' (investigate the death of a fellow agent)...
4. PCs are occupants of a subway train that stops suddenly, in the dark. They have to make their own way to the surface.
5. Something based on the Do You Worship Cthulhu?/Are You A Werewolf?/Mafia style card games. Players split 20 or so pregenerated villagers up amongst themselves, some with secret (conflicting) agendas, such as rival cults, werewolves, hunters... and try to ensure at least one of your characters makes it to the end. Initially more social than investigative, but once people start dying it's up to the players to accuse and bluff.
And one more random idea (this'll be the last one I add to this thread, I promise, and I certainly wouldn't be able to run ALL of these anyway):
6. Arkham Horror-esque. Each player plays an investigator in (Classic era) Arkham, and works co-operatively with the other players to prevent any 'Ancient Ones' awakening and devouring everything. Each player secretly also controls the machinations of one 'Ancient One', and the cults and creatures dedicated to it, attempting to be the first 'Ancient One' to awaken. Stories would be more story driven than random wandering monsters and jumping through gates to alternative dimensions, so it should be more Call of Cthulhu than Arkham Horror.
Well, that reminds me an old idea I had to a campaign. It was based on the computer game, X-com: terror from the deep. It would be in the near future, with cyberpunks elements, war between corporations and the Mythos... The players would be scientists, technicians or security guards. Well, none of my players liked the idea so it was reduced to nihil (unstead they played Innsmouth escape).
