Nebulas and Nightmares

[Spinward Scout]

How many of you have done a Traveller horror game? There are so many examples of Science Fiction movies to emulate. The obvious being ALIEN.

Some horror movie ideas that could make a good game, I think.

An expedition uncovers an ancient spacecraft. A virus aboard the spacecraft starts to infect and take over the expedition crew, one by one.
(The Thing)

A transmission is received by a starship crew. While investigating, one of the crew is attacked by a parasitic creature that attaches to the crewmember. What happens next is up to the Ref.
(ALIEN)

A Merc unit is in the middle of a mission when a camouflaged creature starts using the team for hunting practice.
(Predator)

There are so many others.

I'm making this thread so that other Refs can look here to get ideas for their own games.

How did you run a horror Traveller game?

Did you use an already established critter like the Chamax?

Or come up with a new one?

How do you build up suspense?

What kind of crew had to face your Menace of Space?

Or even, what would you like to see in a Traveller horror game?

 

[aramis]

I've run Chamax Plague, Werewolf, and one other "horror" adventure... really, I ran them as bughunt, rather than as horror.

Heck, Shadows can be seen as a horror type adventure.

 

[mike wightman]

Ghosts, zombies, cyber zombies, jump space entities, otherworldly entity worshipping cults, Cthulhu, cyber zombies, vampires, werewolves - I've used them all at some point.

But for true horror all you need is a character separated from the group, with the sure knowledge that the monster of the week is in the same sewer/conduits/Jeffries tube network and there are strange scratching noises getting closer...

 

[sam]

As a Ref I've not mixed it in-- more Bug Hunt type stuff. A pal has though-- a couple memorable scenarios based on the Thing and werewolves.

 

[Enoki]

There was a sci fi movie classic from the 60's.... Italian made if I recall.... where there are one ship is coming to the distress call of another. On arriving the crew is missing then the crew of the rescue ship begins to be taken / exhibit strange behavior, etc., one by one.
No one can figure out what's wrong or happening. The "aliens" only appear as glimpses out of the corner of your eye on occasion.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Planet_of_the_Vampires

looked it up. Lots of plot twists and it just keeps getting worse....

 

[DangerousThing]

I've used Lovecraftian horror in my games. I think I have the mix correct now.

It's best when you mix the horror elements in slowly. They think it's a bug hunt, then they find that they're the prey.

I think that Alien and Predator are too recognizable for a game unless you disguise it well.

 

[Dragoner]

There is an adventure in one of the challenges about an ancient doppelganger android on a derelict 2I ship that takes over the crew, one by one.

 

[navanod]

Ah, a wonderful topic. I tend to go more for the 'science gone wrong' and less 'creature from reticulae 443-4'. After all, man can be pretty monstrous on his own, so I've researched a few ways to use the man-as-monster concept before.

Toxoplasmosis is a parasite, Toxoplasma gondii that alters behaviors in rats, cats, and people, making males (essentially) dumber, more prone to risk taking, jealous, suspicious, morose, and more likely to have schizophrenia. In women, it makes them more outgoing and promiscuous. Imagine a new colony on a world with a similar parasite on steroids, and it takes a while for it to build up in the system. Things go along normally for a while, but once critical mass is reached, the colony devolves into chaos as the men become more and more possessive of the women, and the women more likely to behave in ways to enrage a jealous man. You can play with the tone by changing the specific behavior influences, such as reversing the effect on each gender, or giving it a universal effect, such as rampant paranoia or hostility.

Another variant of this is the ergot fungi, which grows on rye and related plants. In the old days, the effect of this was known as 'St. Anthony's Fire' for the burning sensation in the limbs. In essence, ergot restricts blood circulation, which can cause a whole host of symptoms - hallucinations and attendant irrational behaviour, convulsions, and even death. Other symptoms include strong uterine contractions, nausea, seizures, and unconsciousness, as well as gangrene in limbs with reduced circulation. Now, take this fungi as a base, throw in a little TL 12+ genetic engineering and a black-hearted terrorist...

 

[Limburger59]

Paranoia can add horror to many adventures. Just the tone of the GM's voice, plus some mysterious hidden die rolls accompanied with suddenly pulling out a LLB and frantically turning pages to supposedly obscure rule, then more die rolls; and suddenly the Annic Nova is a haunted house.

 

[DangerousThing]

...Now, take this fungi as a base, throw in a little TL 12+ genetic engineering and a black-hearted terrorist...

Heck, take today's genetic engineering... A bit more study and genetic engineering will be available for science fairs. And the equipment for a home lab should be relatively inexpensive. There's been some interesting SF shorts based on this concept.

And if you think that's nasty, David Langford wrote a few short stories where the assumption is that there are specific images, created from fractals, which can kill somebody if they just get a look at the picture. The theory is that the image crashes the brain.

Tracking down a terrorist in a game that uses that technique could be a good horror story. Especially if this was a new technique.

 

[DangerousThing]

Paranoia can add horror to many adventures. Just the tone of the GM's voice, plus some mysterious hidden die rolls accompanied with suddenly pulling out a LLB and frantically turning pages to supposedly obscure rule, then more die rolls; and suddenly the Annic Nova is a haunted house.

A very long time ago I GMed DnD. I had a corridor that was supposed to induce a long actin paranoia in the characters.

So my GM's note for this was "Roll dice. Open Monster Manual to the Demon section, and let the players see. Tell them: you see... Oh, forget that, you don't see or hear anything abnormal."

 

[Fritz_Brown]

Uh huh. :devil: BWAHAHAHAHAHAHAHA!!!!!!!!

I would drive my players NUTS making them paranoid. You have to *actually* spring something nasty on them just often enough to keep them guessing.

BWAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHA!!!!!!

(And, yes, I actually do the evil, maniacal laugh very well!)

 

[Timerover51]

For those who are interested, the Book of the Damned, by Charles Fort is available online at Project Gutenberg here:

http://www.gutenberg.org/ebooks/22472

Then you also have all of the works by Ambrose Bierce at Project Gutenberg too. His short story, "The Damned Thing", would be great to use in some way in a Traveller campaign.

Also, the "Displacer Beast" in Dungeon and Dragons is actually based on the "Coeurl", from the book by A. E. Van Vogt, The Voyage of the Space Beagle. The book has a good description of the planet and would clearly make a great "horror science fiction" adventure.

 

[ShapeShifter]

There was a sci fi movie classic from the 60's.... Italian made if I recall.... where there are one ship is coming to the distress call of another. On arriving the crew is missing then the crew of the rescue ship begins to be taken / exhibit strange behavior, etc., one by one.
No one can figure out what's wrong or happening. The "aliens" only appear as glimpses out of the corner of your eye on occasion.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Planet_of_the_Vampires

looked it up. Lots of plot twists and it just keeps getting worse....

One of my all-time favorite Mario Bava flicks. The atmosphere is cranked up to 11 in this one. A scifi must-see.

 

[Murdoc]

My favorite horror game in Traveller took place on a space station, naturally. When the PCs got on board, they found everyone dead. Eventually they found the sole survivor, a Droyne technician. He said that everyone had been killed by a beast that can't be seen in the visible spectrum, but he managed to stay alive because he constructed a hand-held device that can detect the creature, motion-tracker style. He made two and gave the PCs one of them. This was a long time ago, so I forget many of the game details, but every time an NPC went off by themselves, they'd get killed, but the technician was no where to be seen at the time either (after all, he can turn invisible). The only time the "creature" would be detected was when the technician was around, and then the PCs would escape, but people were getting picked off one by one.

Anyway, the end of the story is that the creature didn't exist, and the devices were a fake. The technician would make it detect the creature whenever he wanted it to, it could affect the PC's detector too. He was in fact the one killing everyone and using the story of the creature to hide the fact. He would wait until someone was alone, or arrange for it, then make an excuse to go off himself (sometimes with that person), turn invisible, and kill them. Yup, he was just crazy, never figured out why, but I figure it has to happen to Droyne too once in a while, right? In any case, it was a very Alien-like adventure, creeping out the players with a well-trained nervousness of that motion-tracker like sound, and the ever useful screams from down the corridor. :devil:

 

[Timerover51]

My favorite horror game in Traveller took place on a space station, naturally. When the PCs got on board, they found everyone dead. Eventually they found the sole survivor, a Droyne technician. He said that everyone had been killed by a beast that can't be seen in the visible spectrum, but he managed to stay alive because he constructed a hand-held device that can detect the creature, motion-tracker style. He made two and gave the PCs one of them. This was a long time ago, so I forget many of the game details, but every time an NPC went off by themselves, they'd get killed, but the technician was no where to be seen at the time either (after all, he can turn invisible). The only time the "creature" would be detected was when the technician was around, and then the PCs would escape, but people were getting picked off one by one.

Anyway, the end of the story is that the creature didn't exist, and the devices were a fake. The technician would make it detect the creature whenever he wanted it to, it could affect the PC's detector too. He was in fact the one killing everyone and using the story of the creature to hide the fact. He would wait until someone was alone, or arrange for it, then make an excuse to go off himself (sometimes with that person), turn invisible, and kill them. Yup, he was just crazy, never figured out why, but I figure it has to happen to Droyne too once in a while, right? In any case, it was a very Alien-like adventure, creeping out the players with a well-trained nervousness of that motion-tracker like sound, and the ever useful screams from down the corridor. :devil:

That is pretty much the plot of Ambrose Bierce's "The Damned Thing", except in the case of the Bierce short story, the creature did exist.

 

[SpaceBadger]

Also, the "Displacer Beast" in Dungeon and Dragons is actually based on the "Coeurl", from the book by A. E. Van Vogt, The Voyage of the Space Beagle. The book has a good description of the planet and would clearly make a great "horror science fiction" adventure.

Wow, memories! I haven't read "The Voyage of the Space Beagle", but the Coeurl also appears in Van Vogt's "Black Destroyer", which scared me half to death at the tender age of about eight years; as I recall, I had snitched it from my Mom's reading pile, and after that experience I went back to reading "juvenile" SF for a few more years before venturing into the adult stuff again.

 

[Timerover51]

Wow, memories! I haven't read "The Voyage of the Space Beagle", but the Coeurl also appears in Van Vogt's "Black Destroyer", which scared me half to death at the tender age of about eight years; as I recall, I had snitched it from my Mom's reading pile, and after that experience I went back to reading "juvenile" SF for a few more years before venturing into the adult stuff again.

"Black Destroyer" is the first part of Voyage of the Space Beagle. My oldest brother was reading it, and I sort of "borrowed' it from him when he was doing homework. I think I was about 8 or 9 at the time. That is when I discovered The Iliad and The Odyssey, and also Winston Churchill's history of World War 2.