[Horror+Spaceships] Are all Star Horror games made of the same blocks?

[tanniynim]

What about "Rampant Evil Robot" space horror? When the AI has gone crazy with the crew in extended cryosleep, with nothing to talk to but the space barnacles. And boy, have the space barnacles spoken.

[Max Schreck]

Originally Posted by Figleaf23

-a disease driving everyone to kill eachother (the TNG ep where they all devolve)

-flying dutchmen starships and haunted hulks (various)

These two in particular would seem to fall under body horror and undead horror, respectively, and as I understood it the OP asked if there were other themes than these two in space horror as we know it.

Cheers,

Max

[Frost]

I think that if you throw in the ambiguous cases such as the purely phsycological 'enemy within' or the 'existential horror' scenarios which I will admit can tend to merge into other styles or drift out of genera we seem to have covered the basic styles.

As for locations, I personaly think that even if you are looking specificaly at starship based stories you have to consider a few external locations that serve as an introduction to, for lack of a better word, the horror its self:

The deralict ship/ freefloating artifact.
The ruined colony.
Hyperspace or whatever else you chose to call it.

Most of the starhorror movies and books that I can remember tend to rely upon these locations to set the story into motion.

[TheGnome]

Going on the rouge AI/Robot idea could you imagine a psychotic Bush-bot (from Ultra-Tech)?

[sgtcallistan]

'Sunshine', I would suggest is an SF film with horror elements; mostly in the almost superhuman enemy.

What makes it different IMO is what rides on the crew's success; all human life itself.

This would be a challenge for most players: a mission that slowly becomes a suicide mission; realistic physics making everthing they do to alter the chances of the mission's success pivotal; a killer who cannot be reasoned with or easily found; their own fragile sanity when faced with an increasingly slim chances of survival; the absolute imperative of getting the payload where it must be.

I would dearly love to play this with some of the better players I know. But how? Most of them would recognise the scenario instantly.

[vicky_molokh]

Originally Posted by sgtcallistan

'Sunshine', I would suggest is an SF film with horror elements; mostly in the almost superhuman enemy.

What makes it different IMO is what rides on the crew's success; all human life itself.

This would be a challenge for most players: a mission that slowly becomes a suicide mission; realistic physics making everthing they do to alter the chances of the mission's success pivotal; a killer who cannot be reasoned with or easily found; their own fragile sanity when faced with an increasingly slim chances of survival; the absolute imperative of getting the payload where it must be.

I would dearly love to play this with some of the better players I know. But how? Most of them would recognise the scenario instantly.

Sounds like Escape Module to me. Except I know for sure (because of the mentioned payload) that it isn't.

[Max Schreck]

Originally Posted by sgtcallistan

'Sunshine', I would suggest is an SF film with horror elements; mostly in the almost superhuman enemy ... realistic physics making everthing they do to alter the chances of the mission's success pivotal...

Realistic physics? I haven't seen the film myself, and it may be a very effective SF thriller in itself, but one of the things that Sunshine has been really, really panned for was its complete and utter indifference to, and maybe even ignorance of, scientific detail and plausible physics.

Link here: http://www.scifi.com/sfw/column/sfw16697.html

Cheers,

Max