TopHatAssassin
05-28-2011, 12:35 AM
I have decided that this summer I will try my hand at running a game. A roleplaying game of the paper-and-pencil variety. This will be my first outing as a GM that was not between my brother and I. It will instead consist of a number of people I met last year through a school club dedicated to the pursuits that are inherent to nerd-dom. Most of the other members of our group have led some sort of game, and my good friend has asked me when I will be donning the GM's hat.
At this point, my mind is a mess of questions: which system? how many people? any special rules? where will it be? what are you going to do? I realize these are all important things to consider, and I'm coming up with a few things, but it's still quite up in the air.
I had a thought today on the way home from our weekly meeting: run a horror game. It comes from having seen the entry for Pathfinder's wendigo and not knowing whether to laugh or cry, as well as having listened to some weird-ass music on the radio in my buddy's car.
Now by "horror," I don't mean cheap thrills and chills. I mean the heavy, psychological stuff. The stuff that makes you question your sanity, that makes you question my sanity. The stuff that I wrote in a week because I couldn't sleep at all. The stuff that makes you afraid to sleep after playing. I want to seriously bend some minds here (and break them too, I'm down with that).
I know what you're thinking: "TopHat, that's ambitious as a mudslide. Try something simpler, both you and your players will enjoy it more." And I am inclined to agree. However, I'm still curious as to what you all think would go into a game of that type. What would I as the GM have to consider? I will exercise my Google-fu later on, but I've been reading too much High Octane Nightmare Fuel material on TV Tropes in the past hour to get any sleep at all, so I thought I'd come to you all first. I'm looking for insight from seasoned pros (and regular joes) not just on a horror game, but even just games in general. What do you do when designing a campaign/one-shot/short series of adventures?
ITT: we talk about what goes into running a game.
At this point, my mind is a mess of questions: which system? how many people? any special rules? where will it be? what are you going to do? I realize these are all important things to consider, and I'm coming up with a few things, but it's still quite up in the air.
I had a thought today on the way home from our weekly meeting: run a horror game. It comes from having seen the entry for Pathfinder's wendigo and not knowing whether to laugh or cry, as well as having listened to some weird-ass music on the radio in my buddy's car.
Now by "horror," I don't mean cheap thrills and chills. I mean the heavy, psychological stuff. The stuff that makes you question your sanity, that makes you question my sanity. The stuff that I wrote in a week because I couldn't sleep at all. The stuff that makes you afraid to sleep after playing. I want to seriously bend some minds here (and break them too, I'm down with that).
I know what you're thinking: "TopHat, that's ambitious as a mudslide. Try something simpler, both you and your players will enjoy it more." And I am inclined to agree. However, I'm still curious as to what you all think would go into a game of that type. What would I as the GM have to consider? I will exercise my Google-fu later on, but I've been reading too much High Octane Nightmare Fuel material on TV Tropes in the past hour to get any sleep at all, so I thought I'd come to you all first. I'm looking for insight from seasoned pros (and regular joes) not just on a horror game, but even just games in general. What do you do when designing a campaign/one-shot/short series of adventures?
ITT: we talk about what goes into running a game.