"homebrew horror rpg gone wrong" Topic

My English teacher and I devised a simple horror rpg one day at school. Each character has life points they spend on buying a background, and buying knowledge in certain areas. The only mechanic of the game is card drawing. Red cards are good black cards are bad. 5+ on a red is a success (pretty much) but with each knowledge point they have it goes down. An ace and 2 is always a failure. Black cards indicate something bad happened. Gm always draws.

Well any ways I had a party of: an ex crusader, a priest, and an insane farmer looking for a witch on the countryside to try to stop the plague from killing the towns people.

They encounter a merchant on the side of the road selling masks to ward off the plague (they were really filled with nightshade and snake venom) the priest discovered the trick, and they tried to kill the merchant. He in turn killed the priest, and the other 2 Pcs ran away.

Once in the village, although still being pursued, the Pcs decide to have a rest. While resting in the local tavern, all the candles blow out, and suddenly everyone gets up and leaves. The crusader and farmer try to leave, but the doors slam shut. Suddenly they hear "mommy mommy moooooommmeeeeeeeeeeeeee" then they hear a lout splat, and cackling. So the crusader starts praying, and the farmer kills himself.

The crusader is left alone. The body of the farmer starts shaking horribly, and stands up, brought back by evil magic.

So instead of trying to kill it like a knight should, he too kills himself, for fear that he would too become a zombie.

result? TPK
we are going to try modern with these rules next week. Everybody had fun, but the mommy freaked the farmer player out too much lol.

Thoughts on this? Funny? Sad?
What should have happened?

Simply hilarious.

Sounds like the player playing the knight was a dud.

Sounds like a good horror game to me!
Much better than players who never give ground and refuse to acknowledge the horror/hopelessness of the situation.

The player playing the knight was a first time rpger, so his actions are understandable, we did explain to him that survivability is low, so that is probably why he didn't fight.

Oh, I get that it was a new player. The player might not know what type of play style he actually has fun playing?

He took the tough guy. He ran from a fight, which I don't necessarily have a problem with tactically. The problem I see is leaving your buddy to die. Then in order to not coming back from the dead he takes the same action the farmer did who came back from the dead.

Don't get me wrong I didn't say it wasn't fun or funny.

I think he took his character a little seriously, and was afraid of the actual process of being killed and eaten, as opposed to actually becoming undead.

Next time, I think I'll make it a little easier.

So he was immersed in his character… in the game situation as presented. Sounds like success to me.
So often players just shrug those things off and play mechanically, shooting it out to the last hit point when really they ought to run or cower in fear.
A while back our GM put my PC in a bind (As a result of him doing something dumb) that had me considering having him do himself in. He really had no good options. It was some of the best RPG fun I've had in a long time.

I would contend he was immersed in himself and not the character.

<<Sounds like success to me.>> TPK a success?
<<He really had no good options.>> Or , oh I don't know maybe the ex-crusader should have helped the priest against the merchant.

aapch45 sounds like a good Season of the Witch and Black Death inspired story you had going? I don't know if it was to hard or just inexperienced players and no real group dynamic. That can easily happen to the best of us with new rules, new players and a new game.

Maybe with the new player he needs to understand that if he is playing the tough guy. He has to be tough, not stupid or foolhardy but tough. That if the group gets in a fight that is his specialty if he doesn't carry the load it will be tpk more often than not.

Of course the priest should probably required him to act before he started fight or delayed and acted out.

Hey what can you do? As a Gm you prep how you can and then watch things go sideways.

And sideways it went.
when we go modern, he wants to be a more mundane type individualthe priest character was ed that he wasn't avenged.
the dialogue with the merchant went something like this:
"What on God's green earth are you trying to do? Poison us?" "No its just posies, its good for you." "I've never knew nightshade wa…." stab, instant death… (ace of spades!!) The farmer starts screaming murderer, and the knight tells him to run…. so they ran away.
it was a rather helpless situation.
again, when modern comes around, the knight character is going to be something mundane, like a lawyer. The farmer wants to be a police officer, and the priest wants to be a highschool teacher… this one will be more supernatural in nature, possessions, demons in mirrors, cultists conjuring banshees and the like, with our Pcs trying to survive rather than quest. I hope to develop this one into a campaign rather than a one off.

Black death did inspire this one-off yes :)

Added fate to the mechanics. Any time an ace is drawn an act of some divine nature happens. Ace of spades- something really bad. Death usually. Ace of clubs- also something bad, possession, passing out, stolen from etc. Ace of diamonds- achieved some great feat, ie broke steel bars, killed a demon etc. Ace of hearts- some even grander feat achieved, tricked a demon, solved some mystical puzzle, closed Pandora's box etc.

The fate cards will help in dire situations, if the players are lucky enough.
I'll keep everyone updated on any more mishaps, and silly stories. Thanks everyone

I would contend he was immersed in himself and not the character.

Why? Because he didn't play they way you would have?

<<Sounds like success to me.>> TPK a success?

Yeah, in a horror game a TPK can sometimes feel like a success, IMO. Just like good horror stories/movies often end on a downbeat.
Not that I'd want such a thing every time. But if they PCs are always coming out on top then it's not horror any more… probably more like 'urban fantasy'.

<<He really had no good options.>> Or , oh I don't know maybe the ex-crusader should have helped the priest against the merchant.

Maybe, but again, you're suggesting he played it wrong just because he didn't do what you would have.

Awesome. sounds like it was well role played. Very atmospheric. It really sucks when players 'meta-game' "I'm the fighter ergo I must fight everything". what a load of bull. sounds like the person playing the Knight role-played it to the hilt. A horrific situation, a man alone against an unseen enemy, no way out. Unless his character sheet specifically stated that the character was a tough, and brave warrior without fear, then I think he played it perfectly.

Bravo to the knight player. I think he humanised the character rather than playing the character sheet. I wish more of my players would play like that.