The initial plan, a couple months ago when I actually started these games, was for them to be Micro-TTRPGs. 3 Micro TTRPGs. Under 5 pages of TNR 12 single spaced, maybe even one-pagers. Man, one-pagers would have been nice. I'll have to keep that in mind next time I do this to myself. I regret nothing but I do wish I'd eventually develop some level of foresight for the scope of projects when I set out to do them.
As usual, I started by logging a ton of my favorite movies into a wheel on wheelofnames.com (LOML) and spinning it 3 times to get my inspiration seeds and I was not disappointed. The movies were Scooby Doo & The Ghoul School (1988), Halloween: Resurrection (2002) and Gone in 60 Seconds (2000). The concepts for each game came pretty quickly.
For Ghoul School I decided to take inspiration from the actual surface plot of the movie, which is that the girls of the school want to beat the neighboring boys military academy in a volleyball tournament, for which they've hired Shaggy to be their new gym teacher/coach. Of course, the actual plot of the movie derails from that somewhat but I thought it would be a fun, quick game if it focused on the last set of this game between a team of monstrous teens and their rival human school, and it would give me a chance to further my personal agenda of de-centralizing Hollywood's classic array of monsters in monster media wherever I can. For that I selected 3 monster myths from different nations in Latin America (viva Mexico, viva Brasil y Peru, viva Chile) and 1 surprise monster for the playbooks, of which the player plays the original monsters teenage child. I decided on a simple point based stat system, all I have left is defining the turn taking and finishing final mechanics. Shouldn't (famous last words but still) end up being longer than 8 pages (TNR 12 yada yada). The title I came up with is an obvious reference to Faster Pussycat, Kill Kill (1965): Faster Ace, Kill, Kill, which came from the volleyball terms 'ace' and 'kill'.
For Gone in 60 Seconds (heist movies my beloved), the first thing I knew for sure was that I was dumping the fucking cop subplots. Instead of being crew vs pigs I decided to lean into the friction between the lead and his younger brother, and their respective crews, and their collective respect for the older, 'retired' carjacker who mentored them both. So in the end the concept became that players play against each other as members from rival crews who have finally pissed their mentor off so much that they set an ultimatum. The ultimate heist challenge, one night only, winner gets to stay in the area, losers have to pack their shit up and move. Between the heist, your relationship to other members of your crew, your home life and the tensions between you and your rivals players have their hands full. Right now what I've got left to do is decide on one of my character builder concepts and replace the dice mechanics I'd originally used with card mechanics inspired by the system I designed for my ParryJam game We Were One because they add the speed I'm going for that gives players the thrill and sense of urgency I want to evoke. This title took the longest but is pretty simple. One Last Sting.
Finally, Halloween: Resurrection.
I should have anticipated this, because it really is not only one of my favorite movies (which is still a considerable amount of movies) this is a top 5 favorite moves, especially if I give it the Angel Cut (I hate JLC and she's not even IN this fucking movie except to seem to die in the first 15 minutes in what should be a 5 min scene or a line of referential dialogue, so I skip the first 15 minutes which you can seamlessly do bc there's a whole title card sequence 15 minutes in as if the movie only starts then. Plus, with the Angel Cut H:R becomes a tight 90ish Minute Movie, which I love), but this is the game that...got away from me. Shocking, truly, the movie that hits so many of my favorite tropes and concepts, in my favorite horror era, inspired me too much.
All this to say I think, without a trace of irony, that Halloween: Resurrection was ahead of its time and is too often massively underrated. Glaring franchise plot-holes aside, (they act like the house has been empty since Michael's childhood, which isn't possible given the events of The Actual Original Halloween Movie, They go with the Laurie Strode is a Myers thing which, Rejected. I'll stop myself here because I will literally write my Halloween Franchise Grievances for another 4 paragraphs I have strong feelings about the films and only like H:R, though I plan to revisit Halloween (original) soon because I suspect it will be raised in esteem by a rewatch), H:R is PRIMED for today's market in re its core concept.
The core concept of H:R is a bunch of college students, each fueled by their own motivation (money, fame, curiosity, opportunity etc.) are cast by Busta Rhymes & Tyra Banks, producers at Dangertainment Studios, to be the stars of an all night long haunted house livestream, in Michael Myers childhood home. They must spend all night from sunset to sunrise in the house, on Halloween Night, exploring and eventually surviving, in order to fulfill their contract and reap the rewards. Obviously, nobody anticipates that Michael Myers has returned to the house, ready to go on another killing spree. In the movie they're outfitted with body cams (clunky things with big mic packs and low resolution) as well as being filmed on hidden cameras throughout the very staged house.
Some elements of this story might, if you're into horror, seem kind of familiar to you. The base premise of 'Spend and Survive one night locked into Haunted Ass House for Lifechanging Financial Boon' isn't exactly new, but it's one that has, unfortunately, only become more enticing over the years, and more extreme. Comparing even the 1959 House on Haunted Hill with its 1999 remake shows the reward jumping from $10.000 to $1Mil. (though, in fairness, the remake is Way more fucking Haunted, a million wouldn't even get me through the front door and I'm Poor).
With today's influencer culture, the economic reality that shapes Reality Entertainment into being half a step from Squid Game level Distress and Devastation at all times (Dangertainment, the studio in the movie, had their FINGERS on the PULSE of the times and I'm so serious) H:R just needs to be grabbed by the throat and dragged into 2025 and I happily volunteer.
I was definitely influenced in part by House on Haunted Hill (both years), and House (1977), in deciding the House is the entity that has lured you, the player, into this solo-ttrpg. You play as an influencer/streamer/youtuber (experience, audience size etc are determined by rolls in the character creator), who one day receives the offer of a lifetime. For a life changing, cannot be refused, sum of money you are asked to do a livestream all night long in one of the most haunted houses in the world. You can't say no. Maybe you don't even want to say know. Maybe you don't buy into this haunted shit. Maybe it's right up your alley (reflected in your Scream and Smarts meters). In a twist of fate, the house is not only Genuinely Very Haunted, it wants to devour you and will stop at nothing but sunlight. A 12 Room house (each room with 12 haunted events, including 1 Sudden Death event per room where you frantically roll for survival), where the next room is determined by roll, because this house likes to play with its food. That's right, you could run screaming from an ocean of blood in the indoor pool room in the basement only to stumble through the door right into...the suddenly pristine looking indoor pool room. You could run through the attic, floor creaking beneath you, rush through the door and suddenly be in the ground floor dining room.
Did I mention you're streaming on your phone the whole time? Physically? You, the Player, yeah. (You don't have to Actually be live but you are supposed to hold your phone up while playing the whole time for immersion. I want to be done writing this so I can make an AP so bad).
And so, A Dark & Stormy Broadcast was born.
God, this game is fucking massive. I'm at 23 pages and counting and it'll be at least ten more I can tell. But it's cool, fuck this game is cool, and fun and I'm so, so proud of it. The love I have for this game is incomparable to me.
Noodling them out here has helped loosen up the knots I think, time to get back to it.
(Alt text: Small teaser of the covers so far a collage of 3 images only showing a sliver of each. Faster Ace Kill Kill is black bold text over the whole page with streaks of highlighter yellow and purple, One Last Sting is neon glowing in traffic light colors, A Dark & Stormy Broadcast has notification bubbles with skulls instead of hearts)
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