Fear of content; Dead of Night scenario

One of my obstacles to play is my fear of creating content: what if I get it wrong? What if it's not good enough, there's not enough of it, it's the wrong sort? (It would be dreadful to have to practice that sort of thing. (I'm saying that with my tongue in my cheek; of course you have to practice!))

This only applies to GMing. Creating a character is usually easy. Since character creation and scenario creation are the same task under different headings, I know the fear is irrational. 

I don't feel this fear when I'm making content on the fly, because there I'm simply responding to prompts or gameplay demands in play, without time to worry. So "no prep" games, and games where prep is both communal and a part of play, like Monsterhearts and It Was a Mutual Decision, don't stress me out. Nor would My Life with Master. I'm stressed out by games like Sorcerer, Wuthering Heights, and Bushido, where I have to make a bunch of stuff in advance. D&D also qualifies -- that's why historically I've been so keen on using modules. (My recent T&T games have been a pleasant exception.)

So here's an attempt to break that ugly losing streak. Today while I was napping I had a  dream about a horror movie, and I'm going to turn it into a scenario for Dead of Night.

Don't read the following if you have any interest in playing Dead of Night with me in the next two months!!

Scenario outline

A picture of a stranger I took outside of a haunted house a few years ago. Note the pumpkins in the background.

The scenario is as follows. The players are all 18 to mid-20s townies planning on having a great Halloween getting drunk and stumbling around the pumpkin festival. Unfortunately they face two dangers: the murderous hick owners of the pumpkin patch, who have had enough humiliation from townies and are ready to fight; and the pranksters who put on pumpkin masks tainted by aliens and become monstrous themselves. (Said pumpkin masks are giant carved pumpkins made of flesh.)

What to tell the players about the game: this is a sim game where we play out a horror movie according to our personal understanding of horror tropes. We're all doing a good job if we're laughing, getting a little scared, and saying things like, "Yes, that's exactly what a B-movie director would put here!". On character death: yeah, you can die. You should try to keep your character alive within the normal constraints of genre, and if your character dies, we should all try to make it fun and gross. I'll give you stuff to do if you die, don't worry.

What to tell the players about the characters: you're between 18 and 25, living in a small town (say, Redlands, CA) living near a much poorer, more rural area (say, Yucaipa, CA). It's Halloween. Traditionally you're going to get loaded and drive to the nearest pumpkin patch to raise merry hell. Give yourself two bad habits and have fun!

Mood: cheesy slasher, r-rated for a few tits and sprays of red corn syrup.

Tension points circumstance: escape and assault checks.

Intensity: up to 5 on any check. 

Starting tension: 2. It's a happy Halloween! But you're a little tense as you're planning to prank some yokels.

Survival points are very simply physical damage, to main characters and monsters. 

Monsters 

Each monster is defined by three questions: why does it act, how does it act, and how can it be stopped? I also have to classify each one.

I've aimed high on Survival Points because I think the farmers and the aliens might knock each other about a bit. 

Pumpkin farmers

  1. Why does it act? To redress wrongs, to get back and the townies who look down on them and prank them.
  2. How does it act? They set booby traps to capture individuals and then take them to the root cellar to torture them to death.
  3. How can it be stopped? Like any other men, by shooting or stabbing them.

These guys are unstoppable killers.

Masked Psycho statblock

The book version needs a few tweaks for my purposes. I'm imagining twin brothers, Otis and Rufus. They each get 3 or maybe 4 survival points. No Sequel skill, because who cares, so either bump Assault up to 6 or add a "Traps" specialty at 8.

Sidebar: Points on Assault/Protect here work in a really weird way. I think we started with 7/3, got Deadly at 7+2=9 and spent down to 6/2, and then got Sequel at 6+2=8 and spent down to 4/2. That's kinda nonsense though.

Pumpkinheads

  1. Why do they act? To serve the pumpkin queen, to protect the secrecy of the pumpkin queen.
  2. How do they act? They gang up on you and stab you.
  3. How can it be stopped? By killing the human underneath, by killing the pumpkin queen.

Roll as hordes.

Zombie Mob statblock

This statblock definitely needs tweaking. Spawn has got to go. Probably Smell Brains and Frightening Visage too. I'm thinking they get 1 SP/pumpkinhead actually present in the scene.

Let's add Imitation too, at 7, replacing Smell Brains. Roll vs Identify or the characters can tell there's something wrong with the pumpkinheaded people before they start slaughtering. Remember, the pumpkinheads are not the obvious threat -- the pumpkin farmers are the obvious threat. The pumpkin farmers are going to be just as taken aback by them as the PCs.

Alternatively, the pumpkinheads are normal people with 5/5 in everything. Keep the Imitation stuff though.

Pumpkin queen

  1. Why does it act? To feed on the psychical energies of intelligent human life and preserve its secrecy.
  2. How does it act? It gets you to put on an infected pumpkin as a pumpkinhead mask. Or it has an infected human stab you. If it's all out of cards it hits you with a vine.
  3. How can it be stopped? The mothership is the giant prize pumpkin in the pumpkin patch. Smash it and all the aliens will die.

Puppet master, clearly. Weakness: assault, specifically stuff that harms plants, like fire or herbicide.

Alien Intelligence statblock

I'm not sure about Hidden from Prying Eyes, since it's a giant pumpkin in the middle of a field. Probably nix that and increase Identify. Controller is an absolute necessity; when a character puts on a pumpkinhead they'll need to roll a conflict against that Controller specialty. And of course Minion.

Locations and scenes

I'll pull up a whiteboard app for the pumpkin patch and ask everybody to doodle in some cool sections as tickles their fancy. I have a few ideas:

  • The pumpkin field itself, where the pumpkin queen sits
  • Parking lot (the yokels put spikes at the exit so you can't escape)
  • Corn maze
  • Farmhouse, a normal house used by the yokels except for the
  • Root cellar, underneath the farmhouse, tunnels extend throughout the patch, a torture chamber

Final thoughts

This is a complete scenario and I'm pleased with it. It might be overstuffed for a one-shot -- it would be reasonable to cut out either the aliens or the farmers. Either way I'm going to actually run this come spooky season.

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