Great White Games/Pinnacle Entertainment Group

Zacman2695 · Novice Joined: 26 Jul 2010 Posts: 15

I've been toying around with using Savage Worlds to run a horror game, which I am thoroughly convinced can be done (regardless of the SW detractors who think the system is too pulpy).

I was drawn to a very rules-light system called Dread, which features a Jenga Tower to physically manifest the creeping tension of a horror game.

I believe that this addition (& really only this addition) is required to make Savage Worlds perfect for horror. I think that horror as a genre requires the rules & mechanics of the game to sink mostly into the background & SW is good for that.

My question for you is: Under what circumstances should the PCs be required to make a pull? (To make a pull is to remove a block from the tower & place it on top.) I've thought of several situations where it could be appropriate, for example: failing any Guts check, discovering eldritch secrets, spending a Bennie to Soak damage, etc.

However, I don't know if these situations will come up often enough in the game to make the tower situation seem ominous, or if they will come up so often as to have character death every single adventure (not a bad thing in all horror campaigns, but in my current baby it would be).
Any & all advice is very much appreciated!

Snate56 · Posted: Fri May 25, 2012 11:18 pm Post subject:

Try Realms of Cthulhu.
http://realityblurs.com/wordpress/?page_id=911
One of many...

And what's supposed to happen when the tower falls?

SteveN
_________________
"We've got a blind date with destiny... and it looks like she's ordered the lobster." <The Shoveller>

farik · Seasoned Joined: 12 Mar 2008 Posts: 324

ValhallaGH · Legendary Joined: 25 Apr 2010 Posts: 4564

farik · Seasoned Joined: 12 Mar 2008 Posts: 324

Pfr_Fate · Seasoned Joined: 28 Oct 2008 Posts: 405

the only thing you need to know to run horror is Hitchcock's Rule: There is no terror in the >Bang<, only in the antcipation of the >Bang<.
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The eternal struggle takes time, Max.

ValhallaGH · Legendary Joined: 25 Apr 2010 Posts: 4564

kronovan · Veteran Joined: 01 Mar 2011 Posts: 683

farik · Seasoned Joined: 12 Mar 2008 Posts: 324

Zacman2695 · Novice Joined: 26 Jul 2010 Posts: 15

According to the rules of Dread, whenever a player takes an action that isn't immediately possible (such as grabbing the knife out of the hand of an angry serial killer) they have to make a pull. If the tower falls, their action fails & they die or go somehow cripplingly insane in the process.

This is a very serious repercussion, but I think it is very appropriate for the genre. I don't really want a player to die every session, but I wouldn't mind that being a possibility if there are bad rolls or bad strategy. Basically, I need to know how to make the tower shakey but not always to fall down.

I've been studying a couple books & have talked with my local shopkeep about getting copies of a few. I have a good feel for atmosphere & plot development, I think.

This isn't quite my first rodeo with Savage Worlds, as I've been playing regularly for about a year & a half. It is however the first time I've done GMing. I've got a great mentor though, & am pretty excited.

Is the Horror Companion out in physical print? I'm willing to buy a pdf, but I really do prefer physical books.

kronovan · Veteran Joined: 01 Mar 2011 Posts: 683

farik · Seasoned Joined: 12 Mar 2008 Posts: 324

Zacman2695 · Novice Joined: 26 Jul 2010 Posts: 15

farik wrote:
Actually that mechanic sounds like it could be imported directly. If you pull from the tower then you get a success without having to roll; pull a second (or more) time(s) for a raise. Fail and you take 4 wounds or lose X sanity depending on how difficult what you were dong was.

I think that if I were going to play that way I would rather just play Dread, because I think it would result in either:
A) None of the players rolling for anything & just making pulls constantly, or
B) My players ignoring the tower altogether.

Dread is a fantastic game, but I don't think that my group would be ready for such a huge divergence from more conventional methods of gaming... scratch that. I'm sure my group is ready, I don't want to tangle with that lemon shark on my first GMing experience.

I think I'm going to take notes at our next few game sessions about how often certain things happen (bennies spent, wounds received, guts checks failed, etc.). I'm also going to play a bunch of Jenga & see how many blocks you can pull before it falls. From there I'll do some balancing & numbers work to figure what exactly should count for a pull.

My ideas backboard (I call him dad) suggested that different events cause you to pull different amounts of blocks & that seemed like a good idea (& very similar to what farik wrote).

I'll keep you all posted.

PurdueBrad · Novice Joined: 23 Jan 2011 Posts: 45

I do like the idea of the tower. Something I may consider doing.

In my head, I'm picturing something like this:

Everytime they fail a roll, use a benny, or spring a trap, they also have a to make a pull.

When the tower falls, the forces that have been attempting to maintain some sort of order in the setting will now fail and monsters may wander, it may unleash some boss-level style wild card, or trigger some other great change (think like the Simpsons haunted house episode, the house is suddenly transported to some other dimension). I'm thinking that completing the task should be done without the tower falling and that causing the tower to fall completely derails the adventure in a new direction OR significantly ups the challenge to a point where it will be very, very difficult to accomplish.

OR, frankly, the tower falling has sprung some magic trap and it has sucked the life blood out of each character and they need to sacrifice their bennies.

SteelDraco · Novice Joined: 09 May 2011 Posts: 61

What about "To spend a benny, you must pull from the tower." You don't have physical bennies, and can spend as many as you want... but each one is a pull. It's easy at first, but as the game goes on, the PCs are more and more reluctant to use a benny. When the tower falls, maybe the opponents get the benefits of a Joker, or the GM gets to draw a plot twist card, or the GM draws three bennies, or design the scenario so that something catastrophic happens in-story when the tower falls - the zombies break through the barricade, the full moon rises and a werewolf's howl rips through the forest, something like that. I'd be better for a one-shot then a long-term game if something climactic happened every time the tower fell, though.

PurdueBrad · Novice Joined: 23 Jan 2011 Posts: 45

You could also, if you're going long-term, put together a penalty chart of varying effects if the tower falls. This gives you the opportunity to have different penalties pop up as the campaign progresses. Here is a quick, simple D10 one:

1- Everyone takes one wound in a magical blast
2- An extra wild card is unleashed on the scene
3- The next wild card faced starts with a joker for the first initiative
4- Everyone surrenders 1 benny
5- GM gets an extra benny for every player
6- Monsters wander/roam
7- A fog (physical or mental) forms and everyone is at -2 for notice
8- Spooky sounds fill the environment, -2 for guts rolls
9- Players lose all bennies
10- Scenario specific catastrophe occurs

Snate56 · Posted: Sun May 27, 2012 1:20 am Post subject:

As SteelDraco said but when the tower falls, they automatically critically fail the task they were attempting.

SteveN
_________________
"We've got a blind date with destiny... and it looks like she's ordered the lobster." <The Shoveller>

farik · Seasoned Joined: 12 Mar 2008 Posts: 324

As I think about the jena tower mechanic I am concerned about one element. This brings a new skill set to the table. Namely people who have the dexterity and propreoceptive skills to be better at Jenga. Despite being played on a table Jenga is still a game of physical skills primarily like shooting hoops or playing bloody knuckles. You should ask yourself if any of your payers will be intimidated by this new challenge or even find it impossible. For instance in our group one f the players has extreme arthritis he can barely bend his fingers let alone play Jenga.

kronovan · Veteran Joined: 01 Mar 2011 Posts: 683

Zacman2695 · Novice Joined: 26 Jul 2010 Posts: 15

I'm very confident in the ability of my players to operate a Jenga tower, but I do understand that in some groups the issue of physical disabilities or a lack of visual-spacial skills is a serious one.

That said, I've crunched some numbers & it seems that I you can pull about 13 blocks from the Jenga tower reliably before you are in real danger of it falling. 10 was the fewest pulls that caused the tower to fall. At our last gaming session we used 8 bennies & took 2 wounds as a party.

If I were to use the tower in play, I don't think the characters would be killed right off. That is very harsh & isn't conducive to long or developing campaigns. Being incapacitated via wounds, insanity, or fatigue.

The option of not incapacitating a character but instead making the player's situation more dire also seems very interesting. PurdueBrad & SteelDraco's ideas were very thought provoking. If the tower crumbles I dump more monsters on you, the ship hits an asteroid, the lights go out, etc.

Anyway, I'm really glad the Horror Companion is out! That should be super helpful no matter what.