Horror HERO: Unofficial What Would You Like To See

[GamePhil]

Aside from Ken Hite (or someone of his calliber of weirdness) writing it, what would actually make this book useful to you?

For that matter, what would you not like to see?

[nexus]

I'd like to see a through breakdown on the different types of horror and how to incorporate horror elements into other genres. Coverages of the difference between Survival Horror, Splatterpunk, Psychological Horror and the like would be cool along with types and rules for enforcing their different feels and atmospheres. Maybe some rules on making Hero a bit more lethal as well and some classic horror "bits" like the Invunerable to everythng but a specific bane" type creature.

Gming tips for Horror. How to walk the line between mainting a frightening feel and making the PCs feel useless and the game pointless. Handling PC death. Getting PCs to actually disaply fear with a few "carrot" and "stick" type approaches.

[Doc Democracy]

a cool character sheet (or sheets) so that you feel like you are playing a horror game rather than just a low power champions game...


Doc

[GaryB]

One thing I'd like to not see is a new stat to encompass fear or sanity. The HERO system as is, with PRE and EGO along with character disadvantages has enough mechanics to support roleplay and mechanics of the genre.

I started myself writing a Horror HERO suppliment since 2006 is well...far away. However, I didn't want waste the effort if a more official document was being written...and even announced for 2006. So, I am instead writing a Horror Hero campaign book called Brighton Hollow.

My setting takes place in four different time periods starting in the late 1700's and finishing up in 2005. The campaign is adjustable to use either skilled normals (50/50) or Heroic level heroes (75/75).

The hardest part of it is not creating horrific monsters, but horrific challenges AND making the story at least adventurous and exciting. If you think about a horror story, the characters involved are mainly incidental. Usually they are only accidently involved in the story. It involves a few people vanishing or being killed and then they stumble onto a larger poicture. On top of that, the 'heroes', protagonists spend most of thier time dodging the horror and not getting killed rather than actually fighting it.

So Brighton Hollow encompasses the Horror Mystery with Horror Adventure. It's main focus is to let players think the unimaginable powerful enemy sent by the devil himself is walking the earth and let them dive into the mystery surrounding the events as they see fit. Brighton Hollow will be chock full of details, character backgrounds and plot seeds for all four time lines, including plot seeds that carry from one time period to the next.

I am currently working on character backgrounds for both pre-rolled characters and all the plot characters of the town. This includes letting characters make thier own characters and adding them in. It's quite a big puzzle to put together.

...Anyway. Back on subject.

1) Discuss the different types of horror stories. From Slasher to Deep Pyschological Horror, Ghost Stories, to Mysteries like the Movie "Brotherhood of the Wolf".

2) Roleplaying tips for both GM and players on how to interact with a horror story and make it intriguing for all.

3) How to create villains and effects for a horror story. And how to make the game more exciting without much direct combat (of course, this really depends on the type of horror game you are running). Of course, you can do the typical Zombie attack scenario, survival mode which would involve a lot of combat.

4) Special powers for gifted humans, including low level types of powers and senses that can be applicable to a horror story. Including talents or perks that can give character insight and background to connect them deeper into the story.