Random Encounter Table for a Haunted Train Train Station.

Denizen · 01-15-2014, 01:34 PM

I'm writing an adventure where PCs are at a train station where numerous supernatural events are occurring in a Horror game.

While they are waiting for their train to arrive, I want to come up with a random encounter table for some things to occur.

They can range from mundane (conductor is rude to them) to dangerous (train goes speeding at them from out of nowhere) to bizarre (portal opens up, taking the PCs to another dimension).

Any other ideas would be greatly appreciated.

Thanks.

The Colonel · 01-16-2014, 02:37 AM

How blatant do you want your horror to be? In some settings, horror might mean undead jumping out of the left luggage, in others it's a passing hallucination or a wierd smell.
Also, is the station in use, empty or abandoned?

cptbutton · 01-16-2014, 07:28 AM

I am recalling "The Heavenly Kid" where Purgatory is kinda like midtown Manhattan and the protagonist has to spend many years stuck on the subway with other dead people until he gets his chance to redeem himself.

alexondria · 01-16-2014, 08:08 AM

Ghosts are always good. The woman looking for her kid. The beggar that vanishes into thin air after they help him or turns into something horrible when they snub him. For fans of the Twilight Zone a woman standing in the doorway saying "room for one more"

Irish Wolf · 01-16-2014, 08:45 AM

Quote:

Originally Posted by cptbutton

I am recalling "The Heavenly Kid" where Purgatory is kinda like midtown Manhattan and the protagonist has to spend many years stuck on the subway with other dead people until he gets his chance to redeem himself.

And that puts me in mind of the guy in the subway station in Ghost, the one that teaches Patrick Swayze how to move things around while being an ectoplasmic entity. So maybe the PCs are standing around waiting for whatever, and a piece of trash suddenly flies up from the ground and hits somebody in the head...

The Colonel · 01-16-2014, 08:53 AM

Another option might be ghosts trying to get home ... I recall a song written not long after 9/11 called something like "Grand Central Station" which envisioned the souls of the dead all gathering at the station to commute back to their families. Like people met at crossroads at night, people who are found lost on an otherwise deserted railway platform may not be all they seem. Teenagers who ran away to the big city and died as a result of predation by pimps, or the general problems of being alone in the city probably make good candidates. Platform suicides are also a good bet, as might be anyone murdered by being pushed under a train - or chased under one Warriors fashion.

Other manifestations could include swarms of rats or pigeons (or other, geographically appropriate vermin).

Anaraxes · 01-16-2014, 11:59 AM

- the crowd breaks out into a synchronized song-and-dance routine (flash mob)
-- the flash mob is mind-controlled, or zombies which attack
- Street musician busking
-- ... who blesses donors with his music
- police chase and tackle suspect in the crowd
-- hear the train, see the light... it doesn't pull up to the platform
- male child about 10 or 12 with round glasses, bangs, and a red and gold scarf pushes a cart of luggage through the station, looking at all the platform numbers
- man's dog jumps off the platform onto the tracks. Perhaps the man follows him.
- despite the people ahead of and behind the PCs when entering the station, they wind up alone on an empty platform
- drunk starts urinating against a wall
- turnstiles jam and refuse to let PCs through, even though they work for everyone else
- PCs just miss a train. The next one along looks old, of a style that hasn't been in service for a decade
-- subway tiles start flipping color, apparently at random. If the PCs recorded them all, the changing tiles would form a word or image on the wall.
- giant alligator!

The Colonel · 01-17-2014, 02:33 AM

Quote:

Originally Posted by Anaraxes

-- the flash mob is mind-controlled, or zombies which attack
- Street musician busking
- police chase and tackle suspect in the crowd
-- hear the train, see the light... it doesn't pull up to the platform
- drunk starts urinating against a wall
- turnstiles jam and refuse to let PCs through, even though they work for everyone else
- PCs just miss a train. The next one along looks old, of a style that hasn't been in service for a decade

You've been on the London underground recently? Or is every subway system on the planet more or less the same?

Irish Wolf · 01-17-2014, 02:56 AM

Quote:

Originally Posted by The Colonel

You've been on the London underground recently? Or is every subway system on the planet more or less the same?

There are certain fundamentals that I'm pretty sure are constants in the Underground, the Metro, BART, the New York subway, and the subterranean slug-drawn carts of Aldebaran VII's largest city.

sgtcallistan · 01-17-2014, 08:14 AM

If you can find the Brit TV series 'Sapphire and Steel', the 'haunted railway station' occurs as one of the serials.
Several other excellent tales are included in this show, in other 'serials'.

The station contains: the aggrieved ghost of a WWI soldier, who died eleven minutes after the armistice, at 11:11am on the 11th of November 1918.
This station was where the 'girls who gave us flowers' saw them leave to the front.
The year before he left, he was in love with his schoolteacher, to whom he gave a rare 'pasqueflower' a breed that no longer exists.

Also, a man is staying overnight, studying the place for reported ghost activity.
He records sounds, but not everyone can hear them on the old reel-to-reel tape he employs.
The first sounds heard should be a person walking in heavy boots, putting down a heavy wooden object. The scent of flowers accompanies this.
The second later, is a chatter of voices that stops when someone comes in the door and orders a whiskey in the hotel bar.
The ghost hunter may be a ghost himself as he seems strangely lost and out-of-time, but does not need to be.

Halfway across the bridge between the 'up' and 'down' platforms, a sensitive person might find the cold, dark, wet and airless space 'echoed' to (a number of men and boys equalling the party) who left from here to work on a submarine in the 1930s.
They, and the Naval crew of the sub have never been found. They want out, and have been told there is a way to escape, but only if someone can be found to 'do the work' in their place.

In one of the rooms in the Victorian-period Railway Hotel above the entrance hall, there is another echo: the last moments of a WWII pilot; trapped in the burning cockpit of his fighter.
He was the lone survivor of a unit, was considered a 'Jonah' and volunteered for dangerous missions. He's the one overheard ordering in the bar, he's been in that cockpit a long time, and would do anything to get out.

Also: there is a driving force, that is enhancing the ghost potential of the location and feeding on their resentment.
Hints should be dropped that there is a train expected soon that will come for them all, including anyone trapped in the station when it arrives.
This force is perhaps time itself, breaking through into the world of the now. It requires a sacrifice to put off it's plans until later.

Hope this is useful.

01-15-2014, 01:34 PM	#1
Denizen Join Date: May 2007	Random Encounter Table for a Haunted Train Train Station. I'm writing an adventure where PCs are at a train station where numerous supernatural events are occurring in a Horror game. While they are waiting for their train to arrive, I want to come up with a random encounter table for some things to occur. They can range from mundane (conductor is rude to them) to dangerous (train goes speeding at them from out of nowhere) to bizarre (portal opens up, taking the PCs to another dimension). Any other ideas would be greatly appreciated. Thanks.

01-16-2014, 02:37 AM	#2
The Colonel Join Date: Jul 2006	Re: Random Encounter Table for a Haunted Train Train Station. How blatant do you want your horror to be? In some settings, horror might mean undead jumping out of the left luggage, in others it's a passing hallucination or a wierd smell. Also, is the station in use, empty or abandoned?

01-16-2014, 07:28 AM	#3
cptbutton Join Date: Jul 2007	Re: Random Encounter Table for a Haunted Train Train Station. I am recalling "The Heavenly Kid" where Purgatory is kinda like midtown Manhattan and the protagonist has to spend many years stuck on the subway with other dead people until he gets his chance to redeem himself.

01-16-2014, 08:08 AM	#4
alexondria Join Date: Sep 2005 Location: Atlanta GA	Re: Random Encounter Table for a Haunted Train Train Station. Ghosts are always good. The woman looking for her kid. The beggar that vanishes into thin air after they help him or turns into something horrible when they snub him. For fans of the Twilight Zone a woman standing in the doorway saying "room for one more"

01-16-2014, 08:53 AM	#6
The Colonel Join Date: Jul 2006	Re: Random Encounter Table for a Haunted Train Train Station. Another option might be ghosts trying to get home ... I recall a song written not long after 9/11 called something like "Grand Central Station" which envisioned the souls of the dead all gathering at the station to commute back to their families. Like people met at crossroads at night, people who are found lost on an otherwise deserted railway platform may not be all they seem. Teenagers who ran away to the big city and died as a result of predation by pimps, or the general problems of being alone in the city probably make good candidates. Platform suicides are also a good bet, as might be anyone murdered by being pushed under a train - or chased under one Warriors fashion. Other manifestations could include swarms of rats or pigeons (or other, geographically appropriate vermin).

01-16-2014, 11:59 AM	#7
Anaraxes Join Date: Sep 2007	Re: Random Encounter Table for a Haunted Train Train Station. - the crowd breaks out into a synchronized song-and-dance routine (flash mob) -- the flash mob is mind-controlled, or zombies which attack - Street musician busking -- ... who blesses donors with his music - police chase and tackle suspect in the crowd -- hear the train, see the light... it doesn't pull up to the platform - male child about 10 or 12 with round glasses, bangs, and a red and gold scarf pushes a cart of luggage through the station, looking at all the platform numbers - man's dog jumps off the platform onto the tracks. Perhaps the man follows him. - despite the people ahead of and behind the PCs when entering the station, they wind up alone on an empty platform - drunk starts urinating against a wall - turnstiles jam and refuse to let PCs through, even though they work for everyone else - PCs just miss a train. The next one along looks old, of a style that hasn't been in service for a decade -- subway tiles start flipping color, apparently at random. If the PCs recorded them all, the changing tiles would form a word or image on the wall. - giant alligator!

01-17-2014, 08:14 AM	#10
sgtcallistan Join Date: Sep 2006 Location: Chatham, Kent, England	Re: Random Encounter Table for a Haunted Train Train Station. If you can find the Brit TV series 'Sapphire and Steel', the 'haunted railway station' occurs as one of the serials. Several other excellent tales are included in this show, in other 'serials'. The station contains: the aggrieved ghost of a WWI soldier, who died eleven minutes after the armistice, at 11:11am on the 11th of November 1918. This station was where the 'girls who gave us flowers' saw them leave to the front. The year before he left, he was in love with his schoolteacher, to whom he gave a rare 'pasqueflower' a breed that no longer exists. Also, a man is staying overnight, studying the place for reported ghost activity. He records sounds, but not everyone can hear them on the old reel-to-reel tape he employs. The first sounds heard should be a person walking in heavy boots, putting down a heavy wooden object. The scent of flowers accompanies this. The second later, is a chatter of voices that stops when someone comes in the door and orders a whiskey in the hotel bar. The ghost hunter may be a ghost himself as he seems strangely lost and out-of-time, but does not need to be. Halfway across the bridge between the 'up' and 'down' platforms, a sensitive person might find the cold, dark, wet and airless space 'echoed' to (a number of men and boys equalling the party) who left from here to work on a submarine in the 1930s. They, and the Naval crew of the sub have never been found. They want out, and have been told there is a way to escape, but only if someone can be found to 'do the work' in their place. In one of the rooms in the Victorian-period Railway Hotel above the entrance hall, there is another echo: the last moments of a WWII pilot; trapped in the burning cockpit of his fighter. He was the lone survivor of a unit, was considered a 'Jonah' and volunteered for dangerous missions. He's the one overheard ordering in the bar, he's been in that cockpit a long time, and would do anything to get out. Also: there is a driving force, that is enhancing the ghost potential of the location and feeding on their resentment. Hints should be dropped that there is a train expected soon that will come for them all, including anyone trapped in the station when it arrives. This force is perhaps time itself, breaking through into the world of the now. It requires a sacrifice to put off it's plans until later. Hope this is useful.