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sojikai
2011-07-12, 02:48 PM
This is a very infantile idea for a game in which the players themselves take on the roles of creatures of the night. The base concept is that players start the game as humans and their transformation progresses throughout the game. Rather than simply picking a monster that you want to become, each playable monster race has a sin that it is tied to. Players grow more and more monsterly at sonething like experience point thresholds, but thesf points are awarded for roleplaying the sin.

sojikai
2011-07-12, 02:52 PM
For example, a wendigo would earn points for cannibalism, a doppelganger for conning someone, etc. What do you guys think of this mechanic? Which creatures would you like to see in the game?

Xefas
2011-07-12, 03:02 PM
This sounds like an interesting basic premise.

Based on this (obviously limited) information, I could see it being a mod of the Shadow of Yesterday (http://files.crngames.com/cc/tsoy2/solar_system.html) system, using Keys as the "Sins" (which reward experience points for varying degrees of certain kinds of behaviors), Secrets as the supernatural powers you develop as you turn into the monster, and many of the skills and such staying the same. In fact, with an array of different Sins and Secrets, you could allow players to construct their own mythical monsters. They could go straight for something classic, like the Doppleganger, or do something unique.

Alternatively, you may be able to get some inspiration from Don't Rest Your Head (http://www.evilhat.com/home/dryh/), a horror game about insomniacs with special powers. These powers either make them tired, or drive them insane, and the more tired and insane they become, the stronger their powers get. Eventually, they lose themselves completely to the madness and become a Nightmare defined by their powers.

EDIT: Updated the Shadow of Yesterday link to the free creative commons SRD page for the system.

Pokonic
2011-07-12, 03:30 PM
Ooh, that sounds fun! Perhapes a point-buy system where the players,while still rolplaying the sin,can diverge and become more uniqe as they become more powerful? It could explain all the variations of
large, savage huminoids (ex trolls,ogres,giants,wildmen.) as legendary individuals of the one genaric brutish monster race that feeds on wrath or gluttany, and the varius woodland spirits,bogeymen,werebeasts and the hundreds of bloodsucking creatures that show up in myth are all variances of diffrent groups of entitys of the dark.

Debihuman
2011-07-20, 03:40 PM
Creature Feature from Chill (now defunct Pacesetter game) was exactly this. Creatures got powers from "playing with their food." I thoroughly recommend it despite its age and lack of availability. I'm sure there is a way to convert it to a different system.

Debby