Like with many gamers, Halloween, rather than Christmas, is my favorite holiday/season. The time of year is so evocative. No matter what else is going on I usually try to make some room for horror gaming. This actually goes way back to the first year I was regularly gaming, back as a freshman in high school.
I had received Call of Cthulhu as a birthday present the year before, and my diminutive, nascent gaming group (all two of us!) was itching to try it out. So, on the game day closest to Halloween, we inaugurated the First Annual Call-of-Cthulhu-a-thon. The idea was for each of us to take it in turn to run a horror game over the course of a single evening (since to a 14-year-old more is always better). Interestingly, although I did use Cthulhu to run my game, I opted for a vampire-centric scenario, inspired by an article in a back-issue of Dragon magazine I had in my collection. And my buddy Alex, for reasons unknown, opted to run a GURPS Horror scenario. As he only had a couple months of gaming experience under his belt (and zero experience with running GURPS!), I seem to recall the scenario consisted mostly of moving through a graveyard as various creatures selected on the fly from the GURPS Horror bestiary literally jumped out from behind tombstones to threaten my PC.
Needless to say, subsequent Call-of-Cthulhu-a-thons have been somewhat more sophisticated. The idea of cramming as many games into a single evening was eventually dropped as sanity prevailed. I wish I could say that the tradition goes back in an unbroken chain to 1992, but that's sadly not the case. There have been gaps, years in which I wasn't gaming and nothing happened, or else I was in the midst of an ongoing campaign and didn't feel like taking a break to do a special one-shot (although I'd usually try to inject a little Halloween-y themes into the session nearest the holiday). Then there was the one year we were really into miniatures gaming and we did a Halloween-themed Warhammer game instead (goblins versus undead).
I had plans to run a game last year, but things fell through at the last minute. This year the CoC-a-thon is on like Zombie Donkey Kong, though! It'll probably be a proper Cthulhu session, although I haven't ruled out All Flesh Must Be Eaten or maybe a straight BRP horror game.
So do any of my gentle readers share similar annual horror gaming traditions? If so, what are your plans this year?
I wish I did. :( I bet your C0C games are awesome. enjoy!
ReplyDeleteI love Call of Cthulhu but can't get the D&Dheads in my group to commit to a campaign. I may try a regular Halloween game on them instead, although I tend to have a non-gaming Halloween film night every year (one funny horror film, one "straight" horror film, then Halloween itself).
ReplyDeleteI've never done this before. I'm also way too immersed in KAP right now to take a night away from our campaign.
ReplyDeleteThe Enchantment is getting into full swing and the players are really digging the magic. So far all the magical encounters have been a bit creepy (except one.) So maybe I'll just amp up the creepiness in the sessions near Halloween.
I haven't yet, and I'm unlikely to, if only it seems that half my friends and family celebrate their birthdays around the 31st.
ReplyDeleteWhat I do try to do, however, is to have a pirate themed one on 'Talk like a pirate day', which are always pretty awesome.
Christian: I've settled on CoC and I'll be running the classic "Edge of Darkness" scenario from the main book. Haven't run that in, sheesh, fifteen years I think. Might have a gaming newb swinging by to sit in, so I thought it would be a good overall intro scenario in addition to a fun one-shot. (Oh, and to make things more relatable I'll be setting the scenario in the modern day and changing the locale to the small mountain village of Truchas, not far from Santa Fe, about which much spooky stuff could be written and run. ;D)
ReplyDeletekelvin: I think a one-shot is a perfect way to evangelize your love of Cthulhu! ;)
Maybe try out a Cthulhu Dark Ages scenario? There was one in, I think, Worlds of Cthulhu #2 or #3 that involved zombie monks. Good stuff!
Eric: One of the years I referred to in my post in which I did not run a proper Cthulhu one-shot was during my 2006-2008 Pendragon campaign when I ran horror-themed session around Halloween instead.
I'd say your campaign's perfectly poised for some supernatural chicanery; in my case, I ran the "Galloping Devil" scenario and freaked everyone the fuck out. Seriously, it was total chaos. Actually proved to be a turning point in the campaign.
Warhamster: Theme days are always a great break, regardless of the occasion! Funnily enough, this past Talk Like a Pirate Day I ran a little pirate-themed one-shot to test out the Savage Worlds rules. The rules got mixed reviews, but the piratey goodness was fun!
We have one player knight (Sir Madog of Henlow) who is the conduit for the supernatural. His character concept is a mystical follower of St. Anthony. He has gone mad twice and had visions each time.
ReplyDeleteHe was the first player knight to really witness the Enchantment start in 494, with a trip to the nascent Goblin Market. In 495 one of his family squires (Squire Jocelyn) witnessed lights on a faery mound within his demesne. In 496, the same squire witnessed an angelic faerie do a freaky, somewhat disturbed dance upon the mound alluding to Sir Madog's Christian-themed visions. The squire hummed along while the angel danced and sang.
496 was Heaven. 497 is Hell. Both are very fey. Both can be very fatal.
The mound
The forge master
The forge under the mound.
The door at the back of the forge