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Old 12-03-2019, 07:54 PM   #11
Mysterious Dark Lord v3.2
 
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Default Re: Best Fictional Settings for GURPS Horror [Horror]

Obviously anything based on My Little Pony.

Why? Because it already is! I didn't know how horrid it was until I talked to a fan and he told me about Nightmare Moon and Discord. And it's made worse by the pastel colors and the "Friendship is Magic" meme! (The fan described it as a "cinnamon bun" - underneath the sweet glaze is a twisted mass.)

That should be a factor in any horror setting - the veneer of pleasant peace and normalcy that hides underneath it a seething pit of insanity and terror.
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Old 12-03-2019, 08:19 PM   #12
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Default Re: Best Fictional Settings for GURPS Horror [Horror]

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Originally Posted by Mysterious Dark Lord v3.2 View Post
That should be a factor in any horror setting - the veneer of pleasant peace and normalcy that hides underneath it a seething pit of insanity and terror.
"Welcome to Sunnydale. We'd love to have you for dinner."
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Old 12-03-2019, 10:18 PM   #13
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Default Re: Best Fictional Settings for GURPS Horror [Horror]

Unfortunately, every locality has a dark side. If you get on the wrong side of corrupt officials and/or organized crime, life can get pretty horrific real quickly. Even a normal seeming family could have secrets that one or more members are willing to kill over (the husband and wife are siblings, the daughters were kidnapped from their birth families while infants, etc).
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Old 12-03-2019, 10:29 PM   #14
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Default Re: Best Fictional Settings for GURPS Horror [Horror]

I don't go for horror games often, but when I do I think in terms of scenarios rather than settings. When characters deal with more than one horror scenario it stops being a horror game and becomes monster hunters, mysteries, urban fantasy, or something else.
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Old 12-04-2019, 04:49 AM   #15
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Default Re: Best Fictional Settings for GURPS Horror [Horror]

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Originally Posted by tshiggins View Post
I also second Madness Dossier as a great example of how to integrate horror with some pretty dark and pointed humor.

I mean, c'mon! A PowerPoint presentation that really does turn people into brain-dead zombies? How awesome is that?! :)
I don't think you mean Madness Dossier there. As the exact situation you described arises in a Laundry Files novel, and Laundry Files is more overtly humorous than Madness Dossier, I think you mean Laundry Files.

Mind you, that situation could arise in a Madness Dossier game easily enough, and almost any horror game can develop elements of black comedy easily enough.

Incidentally, I'll recommend both settings. Madness Dossier is a brilliant creation, stepping the idea of the Technocracy from Mage: The Ascension back down to something a little less goofy (but still with elements of cosmic horror), while at their best, the Laundry Files stories are a clever concatenation of horror, spy fiction, and bureaucratic comedy; the scenario books for the licensed RPG have some great ideas, and I really do want to run them sometime.
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Old 12-04-2019, 08:51 AM   #16
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Default Re: Best Fictional Settings for GURPS Horror [Horror]

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Originally Posted by tshiggins View Post

I mean, c'mon! A PowerPoint presentation that really does turn people into brain-dead zombies? How awesome is that?! :)
Which reminds me of the sadly overlooked Pontypool. Dr. Mendez is just another incarnation of Dr. Kromm. :)
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Old 12-04-2019, 09:07 AM   #17
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Default Re: Best Fictional Settings for GURPS Horror [Horror]

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Originally Posted by ericthered View Post

I don't go for horror games often, but when I do I think in terms of scenarios rather than settings. When characters deal with more than one horror scenario it stops being a horror game and becomes monster hunters, mysteries, urban fantasy, or something else.
I tend to agree.

There are words for people who repeatedly run into curses, demons, evil clowns, mad slashers, Men In Black, mutants, UFOs, werewolves, zombie plagues, and possessed children's toys and don't become hardened, equipped, and capable. One is "stupid." Another is "unbelievable."

As most gamers don't like playing idiots who stumble from horror to horror without ever learning – because that strikes them as not-fun and highly implausible, and because being a victim with no agency is suited to one-shots, not campaigns – they soon end up playing badasses who are armed to the teeth and buy every fear-resisting ability, investigative skill, and combat option the GM allows. At which point the campaign is GURPS Monster Hunters, which is fun but "GURPS Action with the occult" or "GURPS Dungeon Fantasy in modern times," and nothing to do with GURPS Horror.

I take great exception to the description of a story as "horror" merely because it features the occult or psychological tension. Successful horror requires an ongoing lack of control on the protagonists' part. That's easy to arrange for a one-shot, or as one adventure tossed into a campaign without warning, but hard to manage as an ongoing campaign. Ongoing horror is a huge challenge because it demands a setting as well as a scenario, and very few settings really work for it.

Yes, ongoing horror works fine in TV and film series. That's because the writers control the plot and the characters, who always go along with the story. They don't have to deal with free-willed players who refuse to portray their characters as being ignorant of the weird and supernatural, and who want to dynamite Chthulhu or get turned into vampires who fight for good.
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Old 12-04-2019, 10:28 AM   #18
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Default Re: Best Fictional Settings for GURPS Horror [Horror]

I've talked with my brother a good deal about playing in a "Supernatural" (TV show)-style setting (think monster of the week), except it's sort of an inverse of 'horror' due to our imagined campaign premise being that the PC's are assisting benevolent 'monsters' with what is basically witness protection/relocation; dodging and subverting NPC monster hunters all the while (and occasionally having to deal with bad monsters, themselves).

So, it would have some fairly obvious comedic undertones.
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Old 12-04-2019, 03:11 PM   #19
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Default Re: Best Fictional Settings for GURPS Horror [Horror]

You could go all the way to a reverse Scooby Doo. You find and relocate monsters while creating a mundane explanation for all the supernatural facets.
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Old 12-04-2019, 03:20 PM   #20
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Default Re: Best Fictional Settings for GURPS Horror [Horror]

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You could go all the way to a reverse Scooby Doo. You find and relocate monsters while creating a mundane explanation for all the supernatural facets.
Ha, that's good idea!
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