31 Days / 31 Characters - BLOODY SUNDAY

This character is an NPC with a rather strange origin, one I admit I may not be remembering accurately. I'll be doing the best I can to recall as much as I can. I created it and have been using it across a variety of different genres and systems since sometime in the 1980s. It's been a while since I've brought it to the table but would like to find a way to do so this coming year. 

Character: Bloody Sunday

AKA: Bloody Sabbath, The Bloody Gentleman, The Bloody Lady, Bloody Mary

Player: Non-Player Character

System(s): Villains and Vigilantes. Stalking The Night Fantastic, Chill, Ghostbusters, Champions, and more.
 
Nature: Numerous Short Campaigns and a handful of Long Campaigns. 

Gamemaster: Adam Dickstein

Circa: The first version of the character appeared in the early 1980s. The last incarnation was probably used around the early-to-mid 2000s. 

Origins: I created the character of Bloody Sunday for a creepy short story I wrote for...some reason. It was most likely a school assignment of some sort. I barely recollect the details except that the character was originally called Bloody Sabbath and the story was focused on the theme of pointless or unnecessary violence. 

That theme remained a key component of the character, who first showed up in an RPG as a supervillain in our Heartland League campaign (mentioned in the previous entry). According to that campaign, the organization known as Intercrime was lead by someone named 'The Crime Lord', only that was a title and not an particular individual. At some point early in the campaign, the then current Crime Lord was murdered and replaced by a mysterious criminal called Bloody Sunday. We would eventually confront him only to discover 'he' was some kind of supernatural entity; essentially the physical incarnation of senseless violence. Weakened by the heroes saving lives and preventing others from taking them, Bloody Sunday flees the scene vowing vengence.

I've used the concept of this entity again and again through the years in various campaigns,  with slight alterations to its demeanor, appearance, and even its abilities. Some of my favorite versions of Blood Sunday have manifested in Comedic Horror games such as Stalking The Night Fantastic and Ghostbusters, always easing off the humor and upping the creepiness. I often portray these incarnations of Bloody Sunday as self-hating and sad, not wanting to be what it is but unable to be what its not. I know, its sounds a little complicated for what is basically a being of otherwise mindless anger but that's what makes the character more than just another scary monster. 

Backstory: There have been several variants of Bloody Sunday and trying to write up all of them would make this entry twice as long as it already is. What I'll do is split the difference between the versions and give a sort of gestalt interpretation of the character. This will be less Comic Book Supervillain and more like my preferred way of portraying Bloody Sunday as a tortured supernatual being.

American legends and folklore surrounding Bloody Sunday date back to the Revolutionary War but tales of similar spirits abound in many cultures, especially those that would have been present during the early European colonization of North America. Stories of ghostly beings in white with blood stained clothing are told and retold time and again by the English, Irish, Germans, and countless others. Even the Indiginous peoples of Mexico and North America feature blood stained spirits in otherwise pale garments. Bloody Sunday's mythology shares many elements of these other entities but we'll focus on the points that make it unique. 

Bloody Sunday appears during or just after acts of violence considered senseless or extreme. It is especially likely to show up if, for example, soldiers continued fighting after a ceasefire was called. If innocent bystanders or civilians are killed in a conflict between two other parties it is practically a guarantee that the Bloody Sunday entity will manifest. 

If bloodshed could have been avoided but wasn't, expect a visit from this disquieting spectre.

Overview: It has been seen as a male, a female, or an androgynous being, usually around 6 feet tall, finely dressed in quality white garments slightly behind the times (whatever those times may be). Its clothing always displays blood stains, ranging from a light dappling to being virtually soaked. Some white is always visible however.

The being's facial features are never clear, completely covered in a blend of blood and shadow. Its head is covered in a torn sheet, blanket, hood, or some kind of tattered hat. The phantom leaves behind proof of its passing (though doesn't if it doesn't wish too), most commonly drops of blood or bloodied footprints. It moves very quietly when it wishes to and rarely speaks. When it does, its voice is low, raspy,  and laced with sorrow and anger. 

When Bloody Sunday is present, it attempts to make bad situations worse. It will spur on or antagonize the most short-tempered, violent people present in an attempt to cause even more fighting and death. It rarely goes into battle itself, prefering to generate violent acts and chaos while fading into the background.

Such conditions do empower it however and if directly attacked by anyone capable of doing so - other supernatural entities or those with weapons that can hit ghostly beings - Bloody Sunday will engage opponents with the goal of getting away as quickly as possible. Apparently, Bloody Sunday gains nothing from causing pain and injury on its own. 

The entity possesses incredible strength and speed, made greater by the amount of bloodshed and violence that has recently occurred [or is currently happening]. It has thrown individuals across parking lots and smashed others straight through car doors but has never been seen lifting a car, so its exact level of might remains in question. As implied above, it can not be harmed by physical hits or conventional weapons but only other paranormal beings and/or attacks specifically designed to effect such beings (such as certain Magic Spells, the Ghostbusters' Particle Streams, etc.). Once it gets far enough away from its opponents - say 50 ft. or more - Bloody Sunday will disappear, rapidly fading from sight. 

The Highlights:

A rash of very brutual turf wars between various New York street gangs was getting out of hand and starting to spill out into the surrounding neighborhoods and threatening common citizens. Bureau 13, a super-secret organization dedicated to protecting people from supernatural and paranormal dangers, is called in to investigate a possible unnatural cause for what was happening. After a few days of looking into the problem, the Bureau 13 Agents encountered evidence and references to the Bloody Sunday entity, soon after coming into direct contact with it.

Using a combination of occult items and paranatural abilities, a few of the Agents delayed the entity (and got their butts kicked pretty badly) as the remaining members of their team talked the gangbangers out of continuing their foolish conflict. It was a truly heart felt speech by one of the Bureau 13 operatives who was in a gang himself as a young boy and appealed to the thugs sense of family and community in a way most outsiders wouldn't relate to. Bloody Sunday got less and less powerful and eventually departed by disappearing before the Agents' eyes.

The Ghostbusters appearance of Bloody Sunday was awesome as I remember but I can't picture the details and specifics. There was humor in the way the PCs interacted with each other and with this being, at least initially, but the overall narrative was actually serious and spooky. 

Game Info:

I don't have any of the write-ups for this character (think I lost them in a transfer of files to a new computer long ago). Instead, I did a new information sheet using my homebrewed Ghostbusters kitbash (combining Ghostbusters, InSpectres, and ALIEN's Year Zero system).

Notes:

I think of this character as falling into the same [or into a very similar] category as The Red Rider. I have a few of these. Hmm. For a guy who isn't really into the Horror genre, I definitely have some spooky NPCs, no?

What makes this character interesting and cool in my personal opinion is how the players and their PCs deal with him. With the right group, Bloody Sunday can generate some intense moments and fantastic dialogue. With a more traditional party of hack-and-slash types, this character is either wasted or - if you are a particularly evil GM - their activities would result in making the entity incredibly powerful. Imagine setting up situations where the PCs could talk their way out of them but resort to violence instead. When they finally encounter Bloody Sunday they'd be facing off against an extremely dangerous opponent indeed.  

Legacy:

It's been quite a while since I've made use of this character but I'd love to put him in effect in a game of InSane, Castle in Gray, or other Japanese Horror RPGs. 

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Barking Alien

Thorough Thursdays : STALKING THE NIGHT FANTASTIC

I'm a few Thursdays behind in my plan to bring back Thorough Thursdays, but I'm glad to finally get back to the series.

This month I want to make a concentrated effort to not talk about Science Fiction, and Superheroes.

In addition to getting back to certain reoccurring theme posts, I was looking to address the fact that although I (like anyone else) have my favorite genres, subjects, and games, I've enjoyed and played a lot of different kinds of RPGs.

One genre that I rarely favor, but which has occasionally resulted in some really fantastic games, is Horror. However, we are looking at a very specific type of Horror - one with a dollop of Funny.

Follow me as I take a long look at a very specific game...

***

Prior to this post, I've only tagged Stalking The Night Fantastic, the supernatural Horror-Comedy RPG created by Richard Tucholka, Chris Beiting, and Robert Sadler for Tric Tac Games in 1983, four times before.

I've probably mentioned or alluded to it a few other times.

That's just wrong.

Original 1983 Cover and Third Edition 1990 Cover.

This game, and this entry, is a bit of an oddity.

Most of the time, Thorough Thursdays posts focus on a subject very near and dear to me that for some reason I've never addressed in detail. This was the original idea of the series at least. Take a game, a TV show, a famous person or what-have-you that means a lot to me, realize I haven't ever really talked about that person, or thing, and rectify that situation pronto!

Then there are subjects that I want to discuss because they interest me but the opportunity to do so just hasn't come up for one reason or another. Sometimes these aren't especially favorite subjects but they are ones I think about and would love to look at a little more closely.

Perhaps examine them more...thoroughly? Heheh. Ahem.

Stalking definitely falls into that latter category.

STNF is part of a certain breed of game that was very popular in the early to mid-eighties, even if each individual game wasn't hugely popular among the masses. These games all shared the common traits of being really cool ideas for RPGs that were then buried under incredibly crunchy and unnecessarily complex mechanics.

Stalking The Night Fantastic has a number of interesting elements going for it. Not the rules of course but interesting elements nonetheless.

First off, the overall tone of the game is a little bit tongue-in-cheek. Depending on how you read into it, the setting either has a hint of humor or it's a downright comedy (best handled as a dark comedy in my opinion).

I personally ran it a bit more on the serious side (believe it, or not), with humor sneaking in through the use of clever character banter and the occasional oddball NPC. My take would fall in line more closely with the Hellboy comic books than it would say, Ghostbusters (although my later take on Ghostbusters upped the scary factor as well).

The game itself focuses on a super secret organization known as 'Bureau 13' that investigates unexplained phenomena and protects America from the strange and supernatural. A mix of Hellboy's B.P.R.D., Men in Black, and the X-Files, the agents of Bureau 13 are not your polished, James Bond type spies. Rather, its field operatives are a mismatched assembly of former soldiers, police detectives, civilian researchers, and other assorted specialists.

In edition to normal men and women fighting off the denizens of the dark, paranormal  agents were also possible. I recall a Vampire, a Spectre, a Sorcerer, and a Psychic among the various PCs to appear in our campaigns. A friend's campaign featured a Were-Squirrel PC. No, you did not read that incorrectly.

Agent McNamara was killed in action in the Summer of 2013,

and he STILL reports to work on time every morning.

What's your excuse?

The adversaries in Stalking The Night Fantastic are incredibly diverse, as well as over-the-top. It is here that you see the comedic angle rear it's head in earnest. From the aforementioned Were-Squirrels to a few pun related beasties, truly anything is possible. The classics are still the best of course and Zombies, Ghosts, Demons, Cult Members, Ancient Gods, Flying Saucers, and creatures like Bigfoot and the Loch Ness Monsters are all fair game.

I've always felt this game had a lot of potential, more potential in fact than it's notoriety and popularity would elude to. I've run campaigns of it on a few occasions and I'm not even entirely sure I achieved the full potential of the game as I imagine it.

There is this amazing place that lies somewhere between Call of Cthulhu, Chill, Ghostbusters, B.P.R.D., the X-Files, and many other related settings that this game is perfect for depicting. The road to that place is hard to find for some reason.

Maybe one moonlit night, somewhere far away from the eyes and thoughts of the unbelievers, I'll find it.

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Barking Alien

Time For Yesterday

I had a wonderful time this past weekend.

 

I got the chance to play in a very cool, FATE variant game on Friday night, was able to run the twentieth session of my Traveller game on Saturday (after a month and change hiatus), and spent the majority of Sunday with my mom, my sister, my brother-in-law, and my nephew.

 

Much of the time with the family was spent looking at old pictures, including some I haven't seen in ages. A number of them featured family members we have since lost, including my father, and my grandparents.

 

Among the yellowing photo albums, I found this picture, which I can honestly say I have never seen before.

 

 

 

 

This is a picture of my maternal grandmother and grandfather (whom we always referred to as 'Poppy' or 'Pop'), at some kind of wax museum in California.

 

My mother and grandfather were always quite meticulous about recording the dates on their photographs, as noted by this writing on the back of the picture.

 

 

 

 

 

"Mom & Dad in LA (Los Angeles), Oct. (October) 1976"

Handwritten by my mom.

(Nowadays Mom is so tech savvy and cool she has everything saved to her iPad or Instagram, or whatever new fangled doohickey all the kids are going on about)

 

 

I've spoken about my Pop before, and it was a very odd feeling to see this picture, having never viewed it prior, when a) this has been in the family's albums for 38 years, and b) my family knows what a huge Star Trek fan I am.

 

It gets weirder...

 

So, I mentioned above, at the very beginning of the post, that I played in a homebrewed FATE game on Friday night, right? Well, as it turns out, this is the group I've been gaming with occasionally wherein my friend Dan (normally) runs his homebrewed Superheroes game. As a change of pace, we all agreed to try something different, and have other members of the group run other things for a session or two.

 

The first of these alternative sessions was a World War II era game where the PCs are part of a secret, 'Allies' sponsored team of military specialists who fight the paranormal. It's a mix of Sgt. Rock and Easy Company, BPRD from Mike Mignola's Hellboy series, and Stalking the Night Fantastic's 'Bureau 13'.

Anyway, it was a great game, cool set up and a great cliffhanger. The next session with this group will be Superheroes again, and then we'll return to this soldiers against the supernatural game.

At the end of the evening on Friday, we were discussing ideas for other games and who might run them, so I offered to run Star Trek. As I got to know a couple of the guys (and vice versa) in the first place because I had run Star Trek for them at one of the RECESS conventions, the suggestion went over really well.

Then on Sunday, I find this photo.

It's a sign.

I don't really believe in such things, but perhaps it is simply the universe's way of telling me that probability will always steer me back to Star Trek somehow, someway, no matter what.

If it is more than that...well, thank you Poppy and Grandma. It was both inspiring and heartwarming to see you again.

Love,

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Barking Alien



 

Abject Horror

As Halloween approaches, I feel obligated to discuss a genre that has never really endeared itself to me.

Horror.

I have never liked the Horror genre.

I have read the likes of Poe, Shelley and Lovecraft, and while I was indeed fascinated by their works, nothing in them made me feel the desire to read more beyond what I had.

Oh I've read King and Koontz, Barker and Rice, but with the exception of a few books from each, I just don't care for the type of story they tell. Except Koontz. I've really never read a great Koontz book..

I've seen numerous classic horror films, from the cinema's golden age to the Exorcist, The Omen, Rosemary's Baby, and The Shining, up to the more modern fare such as Halloween, A Nightmare on Elm Street and The Blair Witch Project. I know, those aren't all that modern. There is a reason. I grew tired of watching those kinds of movies by that point.

I don't find it fun to be scared or grossed out without purpose. That, in a nutshell, is the key to my issue with the genre. Horror, not to put to fine a point on it, seems purposeless to me. What it is and what it does just doesn't grab me as there seems to be no reason for it. There is no arc for most of the characters, as they are just there to die. There are no highlights to the story, as it's all just a grind to reach the end, where there may be one survivor or there may not be.

I prefer a story with an obstacle to overcome, characters who may or may not over come it, but ones that grow and accomplish something, even if it is just a minor understanding of who they are and what their universe is all about.

Lovecraft approaches this, than the character dies or goes mad and well, who cares.

As an element added to other genres...Horror is awesome.

Alien. Ghostbusters. The original versions of Grimm's Fairy Tales.

I also love ghost stories and tales of the strange and unexplained. Not horror per se but creepy and mysterious thrillers. Ah, that's the stuff.

One of the reasons for this feeling I have about the genre stems from its use in RPGs. For an RPG to emulate the genre with any real authenticity, nearly every PC must die before the story's end. Depending on how you set it up, there is not a lot of long term play value there.

Furthermore, there is often no hope of survival. Call of Cthulhu, the penultimate example of a successful, and popular horror RPG, is essentially about the world being inevitably consumed, and your PCs dying or going mad. There is not going to be a real end game victory. The 'heroes' are not going to 'win'. They have no chance of doing so.

While some may love this and from a literary and philosophical point of view I can see the appeal, I don't really get it for a role playing game. To me it's a GM railroad of the worst kind. It doesn't matter what you do, I am the GM, I am running Call of Cthulhu, so ipso facto, you lose.

When I have run horror...what? Yes, I've run horror campaigns or at least campaigns with a major horror genre slant to them. How can I run horror if I don't like it? Have a little faith...

Where was I? Oh yes, when I've run horror, I've run it more from the angle of 'There are frightening and unnerving things in this world that may very well be from the next one. If left unchecked they can cause a lot of pain and misery. The PCs are here to prevent that.'

In the words of Prof. Trevor Bruttenholm from the first Hellboy film, "There are things that go bump in the night, Agent Myers. Make no mistake about that. And we are the ones who bump back."

I've run Chill, Stalking The Night Fantastic, and a rather creepy Ghostbusters campaign (a little more horror and a little less comedy than the default version of that particular Horror Comedy). In each instance, I was able to allow the players time to like, even love their characters, as well as some of the NPCs around them. Threatening them with harm or death at the hands, fangs, or tentacles of various unnatural opponents generated plenty of terror.

In addition, since I adhere to the idea that ghosts are trapped in the in-between place that is neither life nor death for a reason, getting rid of a ghost doesn't always require zapping it with proton streams or banishing it with the proper incantation. Sometimes you need to get to know why it's still here and doing what it's doing. To that end, I actually made one of my players in our Ghostbusters game cry (The player. Real tears!) because the ghost's story and it's affect on her living relatives was so sad.

I am actually really looking forward to running my kind of horror again.

It is not the horror of more blood coming out of the Human body than we even have. It is not the obvious, in-your-face monster that better fits a D&D game. It's not the unstoppable hockey masked killer who seems more at home in a Superhero game as it is able to survive anything short of a nuclear warhead.

I like chilling, hair-raising, edge-of-your-seat strangeness that is disquieting because you don't know what is going on. I like the idea that you can fight back with knowledge and ingenuity. The shades of night are coming for you, but if you're careful and crafty, you can take back the night and perhaps shed a little light on them at the same time.

I like smart horror.

Happy Halloween everyone.

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Barking Alien

Supervillains A-To-Z: A is for Afterlife

I want to thank everyone who has taken the time to come over and check out my little corner of the internet. Hopefully you will find this series entertaining. That said, it has been rather difficult to get started from a technical standpoint.

I am still using Windows 8 which, as you may or may not know, was created by an unholy horde of foul and loathsome demons to annoy mankind as vengeance for some slight upon the Nether Host eons ago. It is slow, unwieldly and just a terrible, terrible design, even with the modifications and improvements I was able to make.

Google and Blogger are being impossibly slow and glitchy, making it a chore just to post an entry. Adding the art is like trying to thread the eye of a needle with a shoelace.

Last but not least, I am also using the ICONS system to translate the characters I have created in a variety of different RPG rules system into a single set of quick-and-easy (*cough*BS*cough) game mechanics for the purpose of this challenge.

Wow. I forgot how much I disliked this game until I started putting the character sheets together. It simply doesn't have enough detail or even categories of things to explain half of what my most basic villains are about/can do. I highly recommend modifying and kitbashing when it comes to this system. By all means expand the list of 'Specialties'. I did.

Oh well, here goes nothing...

***

AFTERLIFE

True Identity: Unknown

Description/Appearance: Afterlife appears as a ghostly, deep black silhouette or shadow approximately 6 ft. in height, not including its 'hat'. The silhouette resembles a man wearing a trench coat and either a Fedora or a 1800s American undertaker's hat. Its body has a smoke like texture and images of skulls, often seen glowing faintly yellow or green, can be viewed swirling within the dark mist inside him. While he has no facial features, there are two glowing orbs that resemble eyes on what is believed to be his head. The right eye appears slightly larger than the left one.

Origin and Background:  Exactly how the being that calls itself Afterlife came into existence (or its unique state of nonexistence or quasiexistence) is unknown at this time.

There is some indication that Afterlife may have been around as far back as the 1800s but it first appeared in modern times during a murder investigation in Chicago. Police were baffled by a series of executions of organized crime figures using the M.O. of Chicago mobsters from the 1920s and 30s.

It wasn't long before the crimes came to the attention of the mysterious costumed detective known as 'The Mourning Man'. With the help of underworld contacts and the supernatural entity known as The Silver Spectre, Mourning Man was able to track the then unknown culprit to an abandoned warehouse where he was shocked to discover a group of mobsters and Afterlife.

As it turned out, Afterlife was performing the murders to keep the police off the trail of a drug smuggling operation being undertaken (no pun intended) by one of the largest of Chicago's crime families.

With Silver Spectre's assistance, Mourning Man was able to capture the mobsters and expose their operation but while they were able to drive off Afterlife, they did not catch him. Afterlife would return numerous times to aid various criminal kingpins and hitmen, each time escaping into the 'great beyond' before being captured. He has faced heroes such as Silver Spectre, The Black Ace (Ace of Spades), Chicago's Nightwatch and The Ebony Angel, among others. Afterlife's arch-enemy remains Mourning Man and the feeling is mutual.

Powers and Abilities: Afterlife has three primary abilities, in addition to other minor ones attributed to its supernatural state. Some of the more well documented abilities will be listed at the end of this entry. As for his major powers:

First and foremost, Afterlife has the ability to perceive and communicate with the spirits of the deceased and, in an as yet not fully understood manner, obtain their knowledge and skills. He is essentially able to duplicate the abilities (though not superhuman powers) of any dead person. The physics knowledge of Einstein, the tactical skill of Napoleon or Charlemagne and the speed and accuracy of Billy The Kid is apparently at his disposal.

Exactly how he does this is not only unknown, it also brings up questions on the nature of life after death and the existence of the higher and lower planes. For now, the truth, like Afterlife's very presence upon the Earth, remains a great enigma.

Afterlife's second most notable trait is his ghost-like form, which enables him to pass through anything, be it matter or energy. There are limitations to this however. It has been noted that his default form is intangible and he must actually concentrate to touch the physical world. Also, he can pass through and is injured by anti-matter and anti-energy. Negatively charged materials and/or energy forms are a definite weakness of this being.

Lastly, Afterlife's form and appearance are so disturbing that he is able to generate unreasonable fear in those that see him. Those with a strong Willpower can resist this effect but it is very affective against the average person.

Other minor abilities Afterlife has displayed include appearing not to need to sleep, eat or breathe, a sixth sense of the approach of other ghostly or supernatural entities and the ability to float (though not fly apparently). In addition, Afterlife usually escapes by passing through the floor or a nearby wall and not rematerializing. Whether this is teleportation, dimensional travel or something else is unknown.

Personality and Motivations: Afterlife is a paradox and his true motivations have yet to be revealed. It rarely speaks and when it does the sound resembles numerous people whispering at the same time. The voices are hoarse and gravelly.

It enjoys playing up its creepy, ghost status and delights in taunting and scaring civilians and heroes alike. Afterlife prefers to fall into a gathering from above or rise out of a table for effect.

It seems proud of its unusual and unique status as well, often working for the dead as much as the living. Long gone gangsters looking to tell a descendant where their last big score is hidden or recently slain wise guys looking for revenge on the guy that offed them.

Afterlife is always looking to add to his repertoire of skills and abilities and therefore looks forward to taking out particularly skilled individuals or helping living employers do so.

Finally, though it speaks very little, a bit can be gleaned from the few sentences it does utter when it appears. It seems to hate the living with a passion, angry at those full of life since it can not enjoy such physical pleasures. At the same time, it feels envy for those it steals skills from since, unlike those spirits whose abilities it copies, it seems to lack quite a bit in the way of knowledge and skill without doing so.

***

Afterlife first appeared in a Villains & Vigilantes campaign. It has since been used in Champions, Mutants & Masterminds and Stalking The Night Fantastic/InSpectres.

Afterlife for ICONS:

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Barking Alien

August Twists and Turns

I need a twist.

I've come up with what I think will be a cool, new RPG campaign for my FLGS group but it's missing something. It's just not 'speaking' to me for some reason. I love the idea and I know what I want to do with it but I need an angle to get it jump started.

The concept is basically Bureau: 13: Stalking The Night Fantastic. The PC's are agents of a shadowy, government organization that investigates, assists and, if necessary, battles the paranormal, supernatural and extraterrestrial in a modern day, 'real world' setting. It's a very B.P.R.D. meets Men In Black type game. The premise and setting will be taken seriously however with just a touch (only a touch) of the original game's tongue-in-cheek humor.

The problem, one I face time and time again after gaming for 34 years, is an overwhelming feeling of 'been there, done that'. As I've stated many times before I don't know how you guys and gals out there do it. I have trouble staying interested in the same thing for 6 months let alone always running one game campaign after campaign. Aside from Star Trek and Superheroes, which I will always return to at some point or another, I need something to spice up old game ideas to make them feel new and intriguing.

My obstacle in this is the group. Some of it's members are a tad less flexible than others. I can't fault them for it. They like what they like and that's cool and all but it makes some of my preferred ways of shaking things up difficult. For example, I could go more humorous, even darkly so and I've always wanted to try a Peek-A-Boo Horror game where the players play kids trying to investigate this stuff. In Peek-A-Boo Horror, each PC is haunted by a supernatural entity, be it a creature, ghost or whathaveyou, who is connected to them but controlled by another player. Awesome no? I think awesome.

If anyone has any ideas on how to make this campaign idea atypical while still sticking with the heart of the premise please let me know.

On to other subjects...

GenCon is on! And sadly...I couldn't care less. Usually the fact that I miss going to GenCon bums me out but it's bumming me out more that I didn't really want to go this year. There is little to nothing I am interested in purchasing or hearing about. That's unfortunate to say the least.

Part of it stems from last years GenCon when, since I couldn't go then either, I poured over all the live feeds and news coming from the show...and nothing interested me. Nothing. Green Ronin having the DC Adventures rights was something I already knew. No other bit of info mattered to me at all.

The situation wasn't really helped by the fact that the gaming blogosphere mostly consists of people who (surprise-surprise) are primarily interested in D&D, Pathfinder (D&D Extra), OSR D&D (D&D Lite) and/or 4E (Nasty Aftertaste Diet D&D). Even if something indie cool popped up, would is get coverage?

Anyway, as you might be able to tell from this post, I am feeling creatively down. I was also reminising with a friend last night about Star Trek and kind of feeling the erge to run that again.

We'll see. Lots and gaming twists and turns this month.

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Barking Alien