Post
by BeanDip » Wed Aug 28, 2013 6:49 pm
So I had this idea way back when I first started posting in the games section but never had the ability to do it and I don't think I ever will so if anyone wants to pick it up or just comment on it then it's here.
This game would be a horror game. It would feature goblins but not a warcamp, a large farming village. This village HAS a warcamp to draw adventurers away but that's not where the story begins. It features a corruption mechanic to avoid turning evil or insane.
Lately the nights have been lasting longer, the leaves on the trees are dying, the animals are disappearing from the woods and the food grown in the gardens begins to taste funny. Eventually, the goblins in the village begin to turn on each other maliciously or go insane slowly, almost harmlessly, at first but it gets worse and worse rapidly and then those who have been corrupted erupt in a full-on violent psychosis all at once as if commanded. Several (about 15 to 20) goblins hole up in the chief's hut. This hut has an emergency tunnel to the warcamp. The goblins figure they will be safe at the warcamp because naturally that's where most of their warriors and weapons are. Trouble is that the corrupted goblins could follow.
So the player's goblins either volunteer or are chosen to stay behind and buy time. There'd ideally be at least 6 to 8 players. No chief, no teller (they are too important and leave through the tunnel to safety). These are just normal goblins. The goblins would have certain professions within the village serving as classes and giving bonuses.
My ideas were:
Blacksmith: +1 attack when wielding blacksmith tools
Chef: +1 attack wielding kitchen implements like kitchen knives, pots, etc
Farmer: +1 attack when wielding farming tools
Hunter: + 1 attack with bows
Carpenter: +1 when when wielding carpentry tools
The professions would provide other passive bonuses like the chef could detect corrupted food, the carpenter could build wooden defenses, the blacksmith might be able to sharpen or improve weapons or craft some armor (all depending on the materials and time, of course), the hunter could spot things better or be a good tracker. It's up to the players to play to their profession in that way and be creative but logical.
The starting weapons would be things like frying pans, carpenter's hammer, shovels, rakes, butcher's knives, walking sticks, etc. One person would get the Cheif's ceremonial sword.It begins in the hut fighting off waves of your psychotic clanmates. After that, the goblins try to get into the tunnel but find that the tunnel has collapsed, possibly by the teller fearing the player's failure. They need to go overland to the warcamp.
So they set off. They find out that their village was only on the edge of the terrible, creeping corruption and as they travel to the warcamp they find that they are going deeper into corrupted territory. The sky darkens to black, the soil is black too and all the plants are dead. The creatures of the forest have been transformed into twisted, grotesque abominations. The water has somehow turned thick and slimy, filled with bodies and debris and blood.
Arriving at the warcamp the goblins find exactly what they were fearing. The warcamp is dead, a few violent, insane corrupted warriors wielding bloody swords stomp around among the dead. They attack. After defeating the warriors the players go the hut where the warcamp chief would be. The hidden trap door is open and the bodies of the village survivors are scattered around. They were killed by the warriors as soon as they stepped from the tunnel.
Feeling lost and probably hopeless, the group notices one pair of bloody goblin footprints leading into the black, dead woods. The footprints show hesitation and fear instead of the suicidally psychotic berserker behaviour of the typical corrupted goblin. Thinking that one of the village goblins must have gotten away, they follow the prints deeper into the corruption.
Eventually they stumble upon a massive (I mean truly humungous) uprooted tree, and under where the tree would have formerly stood is a hole, perfectly round and with sides made of strange stone with intricate carvings. The hole has a diameter about as wide as a goblin is tall and is pitch black inside, impervious to darkvision and any source of light, both magic and mundane. the bloody footprints they were following go to the edge of the hole and simply drop off into the abyss. A stone dropped inside the hole nevers hits bottom.The area around the hole but especially the inside of it is frigid. An unmistakable feeling of dread and a strong urge to leap inside can be felt at the hole's edge.
And that's as far as I got. The corruption mechanic was supposed to make players see hallucinations, get angry, lie, think of hurting themselves or others. Stuff like that. It was supposed to go on a scale of sanity to corruption. The PCs have a natural resistance to corruption so gain it slower than an NPC would. You could lose corruption and gain sanity through good roleplaying, events important to the character, finding a "soul anchor" like a trinket from a loved one that keeps you grounded to reality and yourself or through the very rare spell like a 'scroll of soul cleansing'. At full corruption you turn evil and get to attack your teammates or run off in an insane frenzy but either way you're out of the game, same as a death.
Healing items should be just rare enough to cause tension, actual weapons and armour should be very rare. Crafting should be encouraged but not to a game breaking level and shouldn't come easily. Crafting all those bedsheets into some heavy cloth armor? Sure the Tailor could do that given the right materials. Good roleplaying is strongly encouraged, if not required, especially in regards to corruption effects.
NOTE TO ALL THOSE I AM GAMING WITH: Currently gaming with others in the Sacred Statue Garden.
Signature changed by request of MrsBeanDip by Wolfie
