Crazy Halloween Game idea for forum members

[Shawn Merrow]

I had a crazy idea that might be fun. We come up with an adventure either as a group or by voting on the best submission, then all the GM run the same adventure on Halloween. The GM then all come back and post how it went with their groups. It would be interesting to see how all the varies groups solved the adventure.

[pblackcrow]

First thought I had is for a Victorian Era game, in the 1860's-1890's England.

[MurderCityDisciple]

Hum....

How 'bout a haunted house that is actually real..by haunted house I mean one of those seasonal (North American for the most part) holiday attractions?

Some well meaning person has decided to use an actual abandoned asylum for a haunted Halloween attraction. The presence of living people has stirred up, what for decades has remained dead and silent (for the most part).

The P.C.'s can either be regular victim type folk or an actual spook hunter group hired to investigate.

Shawn did you just want basic concepts or an actual scenario write up?

[Shawn Merrow]

We will need a full adventure when enough of us agree on something.

[Soldier of Od]

Why don't we use one of the printed adventures in Beyond Arcanum or Tome Grotesque? Oh, wait...

[Shawn Merrow]

How about we stick to the subject at hand.

[Soldier of Od]

Sorry, couldn't resist.

Seems like a good idea. I would be thinking something USA-based as opposed to the earlier Victorian England idea, as it is in America that Hallowe'en really means something. Trick-or-treating and dressing up and all that.

Big job for someone to write an adventure for us all, though.

Unless we all do the winning adventure (or the runner up) from the recent photo-inspired adventure competition?

[Hendrik]

Hi there,

I thought, a Halloween game must be simple and straightforward!

Having recently read through Dead Reign attentively I find that I like it a lot - it is a great little game - and from "my BtS perspective" also an excellent BtS resource as a very detailed Zombie sourcebook! I think that Dead Reign is an easy fit to the extremely flexible BtS and can profit a lot from the BtS P.C.C.s, especially if you turn the Zombie story to something biblical.

So, what about this little ADVENTURE called

TRICK OR TREAT

Spoiler:

It is Halloween ... Somebody's gonna hurt someone before the night is through, somebody's gonna come undone... actually a lot of somebodies. Tonight is the night when the restless dead will be imbued by the tormented souls from the purgatory and rise to eat the brains of the living.

The game starts on the afternoon of the 31st of October. The characters know each other and live in the same [your] city and are part of RIA, a small "agency" fighting the supernatural.

Alternatively, the characters could all be normal Janes and Joes and Miles "just another guy"; I would still suggest to have Miles have the same background, only unknown to the players. As yet another alternative, instead of having the agency RIA small as shown below you could beef it up to epic 007-ish or governmental proportions, e.g. a "man in black" thing; a big agency, the more clandestine the better, I think, would be cool for further adventures, but for this Halloween adventure ... methinks, low key is much, much better. Less gadgets, less power is best for such a fight, I think.

Using your own city will have the advantage that you know its ins and outs.

This game can be played with either BtS, Dead Reign or as a crossover (and if you want you can throw in some N&S martial arts, which could be fun against super strong zombies).

***

The people in the city are looking forward to Halloween, parents buy chocolates and sweets and mothers make or buy costumes for the kids. The kids, especially the younger ones are all extremely excited because tonight it is TRICK OR TREAT and they expect to be showered with chocolates and sweets. Little do they know …

The party gets a message from their mentor and team leader, Miles N. More, a former 1960s CIA agent and pilot turned antiquarian who was kicked out of the CIA because he steadfastly alleged that there are Gremlins in the Kremlin (true!) and communism was their idea (not completely true). Miles was then part of the peace movement and has researched the supernatural. His second hand bookshop is as much his private library and research tool as it is a store front for his, albeit small, subterranean training facility. He calls his team the RIA (really intelligent agency). There are RIA agents all over the USA, although the total is unknown, it cannot be more than maybe 2 dozen guys, the party forms all the membership in the [your] city.

Miles has recently acquired an original copy of Robert Burns’ poem (Halloween poem on Wikisource / and here the Burns' club "edition" complete with a translation in more current "cleaner" English) with some handwritten notes by Scotland's favourite son himself proving that he was aware of the supernatural - a quality often found in the creative, poets, painters, etc. As many artists Rabbie Burns seems to have had the gift of second sight. In 1785 when he wrote the poem, Burns apparently was convinced that exactly 222 years from the day George Washington would become the President of the colonies a gate to hell would be opened on Halloween … and that would make the All-Hallows-Even of 2011 a truly horrible day “when the dead would walk and blood would flow”.

Well, the good poet has been right!

This night the dead will indeed walk. People take Halloween for granted and do not think it performs a real job, when its function is really to appease the dead in purgatory. Well, Halloween has been commercialized too much; people have become greedy, including the kids. All they want is chocolate and sweets. The dead are stirring and nobody is there to appease them.

Ways to solve this adventure may include gathering kids and saying something like please return to your graves and the zombies might, using a congregation for the same effect might work, blow a dam, or any other way to creatively kill truck loads of the zombies. As soon as the party will have found out that water is effective against the zombies .. they will get creative and that should be fun.

If you want a flashy exit for the party, take care towards the end that a lot of stuff explodes and balls of flame (maybe exploding gas works) shoot into the air, maybe there is a dam near that the party, if it thinks big enough, can detonate so that the rushing water sinks the city/town but kills the zombies. Miles could appropriate an old helicopter, maybe he has one, and save the party!

Advise:

(1) As a handout you might want to print the Halloween poem on some nice old looking paper (or age it: advise on aging paper) and manually, or with some nice font, put in the ominous and scrawled notes by Burns.
(2) Do NOT let on that Miles can fly a helicopter. That may make fighting zombies too easy, although the picture of relentless burning zombies holding onto chopper skids and climbing upwards while it flies is very cool, too...

***

Flame Zombie (Sloucher variant)

Slightly more intelligent and usually a tad quicker, the Purgatory returnee Zombies are also physically a slight bit weaker on Hit Points but they do burn anything they touch although it takes a while (see below).

Also known as: Burners, Hotties, Flamin’ Dead
Alignment: Considered Diabolic
Attributes: I.Q. 1D6, M.E. 1D6, M.A. 1D4, P.S. 2x Strength when alive (typically 2D6+18), P.P. 1D6+1, P.E. 1D6+10, P.B. 2D4, Spd 1D6+4
Hit Points: P.E. attribute number, but all Main Body S.D.C. must be depleted first before Hit Points can be affected. NOTE: See S.D.C. by Location and Hit Points for more details.
S.D.C. By Location:

*Hands (2) – 1D6+4 each
*Arms (2) – 1D8+6 each
*Feet (2) – 1D6+4 each
*Legs (2) – 2D6+6 each
*Lower Jaw – 1D6+3
**Neck – 1D6+10
**Head – 1D6+10
***Main Body – 3D6+36

Armor Rating: 13
Horror Factor: 14
P.P.E. 1D4
Natural Abilities: Standard for a Zombie (cf. pages 38 ss. Dead Reign RPG)
See Life Energy, Sense Life Energy, Recognize Human Scent, Track Humans by Scent, Smell Fear in Humans, Zombies Can See Without Eyes, Keen Sense of Hearing, S.D.C. and Hit Point Regeneration, Go Dormant, People Slain by the Zombies Rise as One
Special: Impervious to Most Everything is a bit different as Flame Zombies are completely immune to Fire. Only decapitation, destroying a zombie’s brain, and water (holy or not) can destroy this zombie. In order to kill this zombie with water complete submersion is required, strong water jets (like a firehose) will do 2D6+6 damage, a simple garden hose will only do 1D6 damage and a super soaker 1D4 while a water canon at high pressure (like the ones for crowd control, cranked up) will cause 4D6+10 damage (area effect: in the concentrated spray area [DM discretion])
Skill of Note: Climb 35%/20%
Attacks per Melee: Three, usually by biting and hitting with fists
Damage (S.D.C./Hit Points):

Bite: 2D6 damage (no P.S. bonus)
Head Butt: 2D4 + P.S. damage bonus
Punch/Claw Attack: 1D6 damage + P.S. damage bonus (if any) + 1D6 heat/fire damage
Kick Attack: 2D4 damage + P.S. damage bonus
Weapon: rarely used, but if used then only for bludgeoning (note that wooden items held by a Flame Zombie will start to burn after smouldering for usually 2D6 rounds)

Bonuses: +2 to strike; no automatic parry
Penalties: -2 to initiative and -7 on Perception Rolls
Vulnerabilities: Really quite dumb, animalistic, easily tricked, slow moving, cannot swim, poor climbers, head shots, decapitation and water kill, severe cold and water reduce speed. Fear of water holds them at bay.

***

Really Intelligent Agency (RIA)

Agency Symbol
Peace Sign with a Zombie in the centre

Agency Features

A. Outfits: None. The characters are responsible for their own clothing although Miles is best buddies with the owner of the general store (for big cities: DIY store) - an old hippie / vietnam veteran names Charles W. Sinker - and gets a 50% discount there.
B. Equipment: None, but see the discount rate under A. above
C. Weapons: Armed Agents. Miles takes care of normal ammo and standard weapons, nothing military grade, though, although Miles may be able to get that if he has weeks of time to prepare.
D. Vehicles: 1 old pick-up and a 1970 cherry red Ford Mustang with racing stripes
E. Communications: basic (walkie-talkie, 1960s/1970s state-of-the-art reel-to-reel tape recorders, a huge transistorised computer in the sub-basement and such)
F. Offices & Distribution: none. Miles' 2nd bookstore is used as HQ and training facility.
G. Military Power: none.
H. Sponsorship: "Agent sponsored", i.e. Miles and his men run the show by themself.
I. Budget: Nickles & Dimes (5,000-10,000 available per operation max.)
J. Administration Control: freehand.
K. Internal Security: Iron-clad. Miles is very good with surveilance even if his equipment is pretty outdated, the basements and sub-basement even have airlocks. It is a bit like a 1960s Bond movie down there.
L. Infiltration: none.
M. Credentials: Unknown to the populace and the government.
N. Agency Salary: none.

***

MILES N. MORE

[=== stats to follow ===]

Miles was born on January 12, 1940, is the son of Marek and Adele Morovieczek, Polish immigrants who changed their name to the simpler "More", and is now 71 years old. Here a picture of Miles with his wife Mary. Miles joined the Marines in 1958 and fought in Vietnam for 3 tours. He made it to the rank of captain and he is a trained combat helicopter pilot. While on his 3rd tour he was recruited by the CIA for which he worked until the early 1969, mostly in the Eastern block, station Moscow. He speaks Russian and Polish fluently.

***

HOW MANY STARTING ZOMBIES IN YOUR TOWN?

Well, I think that would depend on the number of people who have died in your town/city. For that I would use the so-called crude death rate, i.e. number of death per 1,000 inhabitants, which in the US is a bit under 9 (1975: 8,9; 2007: 8,3) [data for 1975-2007 according to infoplease.com]. From there on it becomes way to complex. Just use 8 death per 1,000 inhabitans per year and you should be fine and use crude numbers for population developement. Let us say that your town has 20,000 inhabitants and that did not change, give or take a few over the last 100 years that would give you a zombie reservoir of 16,000 starting zombies (20x8x100).

That said, for playability: ADJUST THAT DOWN AS NEEDED ... or just let them come up - from their graves, that is - slowly.

Also, there is the point of how much Zombie would you have after the body has "lost its meat". If you rule that a zombie must be more or less intact to become a zombie ... you only have the dead of the last max. 30-60 days (More realistic is under 30 days after point of death! And then a lot will be quite bloated and reek like hell; I would up the horror factor for the "bloaties" by +1.) to start with.

Start with 1D6 Zombies for every 1,000 inhabitants and you should be fine. As they "make more" quick ... you would still be "good".

***

Enjoy!

I would love feedback.

ALTERNATIVE ADVENTURE SEED: Wanted to do a werewolf, vampire thing first, like kids become infected by something or magic that turns them into what they wear for Halloween but thought a zombie thing is more fun.

Cheers
Hendrik

[Shawn Merrow]

Looks like a fun adventure Hendrik. Anyone else want to add any comments?

[Ronin Shinobi]

Inspired on a episode of dead files where a house contained about 5 shadow people who were tormenting a family for years. Especially the children. Could be a good Adventure for a paranormal group to look into.

[Hendrik]

Looks like a fun adventure Hendrik. Anyone else want to add any comments?

Thank you, Shawn!

Anything I should add to the adventure. Not saying here that this is what should be played, I am just asking for feedback what y'all think is missing.

Cheers
Hendrik

[Shawn Merrow]

Looks like a fun adventure Hendrik. Anyone else want to add any comments?

Thank you, Shawn!

Anything I should add to the adventure. Not saying here that this is what should be played, I am just asking for feedback what y'all think is missing.

Cheers
Hendrik

Miles stats would be nice but other then that can't think of anything. I have been sick the last few days will give more input when feeling better.

[mrloucifer]

As much as I'm digging this idea, I'll have to sadly stay out of this one as I wont be having a gathering for the next month or so.
But I look forward to the results!

[Hendrik]

Miles stats would be nice but other then that can't think of anything. I have been sick the last few days will give more input when feeling better.

Thank you. Will do. As I am moving house at the moment it may be a few days before I can stat out Miles but watch this space

Get well soon!

Kindest regards
Hendrik

[Shawn Merrow]

Being in pain sucks.

Another idea we could try is a group enemy that every GM uses in their own way.

[Shawn Merrow]

My idea and looks like I will be to sick to run anything at this rate.

[MurderCityDisciple]

My Halloween game was my usual Nightbane game.

There was some dressing up though.
My players infiltrated a Vampire minion run teeny-bopper, goth Glampire Larp session.

There was zero combat and a few hundred dollars were spent at Hot Topic. No teen goths were actually harmed in the session. Damn.

[mrloucifer]

There was zero combat and a few hundred dollars were spent at Hot Topic.

I keep promising to buy stock in hot topic around the season and never remember to do so.