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Yora
2014-01-22, 04:05 PM
I've been reading quite a bit about the sci-fi horor movies from the late 70s and early 80s the last couple of days, and it got me a couple of ideas that I think would be interesting in a pen and paper adventure as well.

- A monster with regenerating ability that makes hit and run attacks and then gets back to safety to heal back to full strength. Usually you can expect monsters to be killed in the fight that they appear, or they escape so badly injured that they leave the area for good and don't come back. But with some decent regeneration, they can be back in a hour or two. The players have to come up with a plan to trap it in a corner and kill it for good, before they run out of healing resources themselves. That means either setting a trap, or tracking it back to its lair.

- The PCs are on a monster hunt, but in the place they are hunting in there's not just one but actually two different enemies.
Like in Alien, where they are trying to hunt the Alien for half of the movie, but nobody realizes until close to the end that one of them is an android who tries to make sure it's kept alive, even at the expense of the crew.

- The PCs get to spot a reasonably (but not too) powerful enemy a couple of times and fight it a bit on a few occasions. But only considerably later do they learn that it's actually more than just one of these creatures around.
I always think it's such a waste in the movie when the first ringwraith is first joined by three more at the ferry. It hadn't really been neccessary to show all nine riding out of their castle and having Gandalf say that there are "The Nine" out and looking for the ring. It would have been so much better if it looks like only one really powerful enemy, but as he turns his horse around to race for the bridge, there's suddenly three more coming out of the woods behind him and join him.

- The PCs hunt a monster and there's a lot of hints that indicate a certain type of classic monster, but only after they have already planned how to kill that monster using traditional methods, they find more clues that completely overthrew their theory and leave them completely clueless about what they should do. It could of course also happen even just at the moment they spring their trap and it turns out to be completely useless.
People getting found mauled by a giant beast during the full moon doesn't have to make it a werewolf. Even when the full moon is over, the attacks might continue. And all the stuff you can do with vampires.

Kaveman26
2014-01-22, 04:14 PM
I've been reading quite a bit about the sci-fi horor movies from the late 70s and early 80s the last couple of days, and it got me a couple of ideas that I think would be interesting in a pen and paper adventure as well.



- The PCs are on a monster hunt, but in the place they are hunting in there's not just one but actually two different enemies.
[SPOILER="Alien movies"]Like in Alien, where they are trying to hunt the Alien for half of the movie, but nobody realizes until close to the end that one of them is an android who tries to make sure it's kept alive, even at the expense of the crew.[/

- The PCs hunt a monster and there's a lot of hints that indicate a certain type of classic monster, but only after they have already planned how to kill that monster using traditional methods, they find more clues that completely overthrew their theory and leave them completely clueless about what they should do. It could of course also happen even just at the moment they spring their trap and it turns out to be completely useless.
People getting found mauled by a giant beast during the full moon doesn't have to make it a werewolf. Even when the full moon is over, the attacks might continue. And all the stuff you can do with vampires.

This last part pretty much sums up the majority of dr who episodes post 2005. Watch those for added inspiration. Also flip cliches. Werewolves healed by silver and hurt by moonlight etc. don't let them rely on previous experience or knowledge.

veti
2014-01-22, 05:33 PM
- A monster with regenerating ability that makes hit and run attacks and then gets back to safety to heal back to full strength. Usually you can expect monsters to be killed in the fight that they appear, or they escape so badly injured that they leave the area for good and don't come back. But with some decent regeneration, they can be back in a hour or two. The players have to come up with a plan to trap it in a corner and kill it for good, before they run out of healing resources themselves. That means either setting a trap, or tracking it back to its lair.

That pretty much describes the "Friday the 13th", "Nightmare on Elm Street" and "Halloween" series, among others.


- The PCs are on a monster hunt, but in the place they are hunting in there's not just one but actually two different enemies.

And that's the 'Scream' movies. If you want to be an EvilBastardGM(TM), give all the PCs a suspicious amount of backstory that they don't want to come out, but have only one (or maybe two, but only if the party is large enough) acting as actual villains.

Jay R
2014-01-22, 10:37 PM
If you base a game on Alien, serve spaghetti to the gamers that night.

Kaww
2014-01-23, 03:09 PM
If you base a game on Alien, serve spaghetti to the gamers that night.

And if you base a game on Space Balls make them choose between soup and special. :smallwink:

But, seriously, most of these are quite common in games I play, even the backstabbing PC. Trust me, good players catch up and adapt fast. I believe that the greatest surprise I managed to pull lately was a game without surprises. It was quite refreshing and reminded us of the good old days...

Doorhandle
2014-01-23, 03:55 PM
kobold quarterly can make your monsters a bit fresher. (http://www.koboldpress.com/k/?s=old+hat+monsters&x=0&y=0)

Also, You could consider applying tropes from a different genure. For example, a hot-blooded lich who gets stronger every time he's killed, or the court intrigue in the area resembling a romantic comedy more than anything else.

scsimodem
2014-01-23, 09:40 PM
I find the best twists for adventures are based on genre savvy villains (or even manipulative allies). They know the cliches from 'the stories' and play them to a t, just to cover up the real plan. I play up the expectations of monster races only to reveal them later as underclassed victims of a layered society. I have the players fight back against the evil empire occupying their country only to have the leader of the resistance replace the empire with something even worse (I even modeled an entire campaign after the rise of the Nazis...with the players figuring out about halfway through that they were instrumental in the Nazis' rise to power).

The best thing you can do to twist plots, though, is have the main sources of exposition be unrepentant liars. Now, the liars need reasons to lie and you need to establish that they are, in fact, liars. Then, you can cackle on the inside as the players continue to believe every line of exposition delivered to them. If you need an example of how to do this well, play Knights of the Old Republic 2, then go out on the internet to people talking about it, and watch how people regularly cite everything Kreia says as gospel, despite the fact that she says things that directly contradict things you see with your own eyes and even *other things she has said.*

Twists rely on setting up expectations, then subverting them, and no player ever suspects exposition to be unreliable.

Slipperychicken
2014-01-25, 12:03 AM
- A monster with regenerating ability that makes hit and run attacks and then gets back to safety to heal back to full strength. Usually you can expect monsters to be killed in the fight that they appear, or they escape so badly injured that they leave the area for good and don't come back. But with some decent regeneration, they can be back in a hour or two. The players have to come up with a plan to trap it in a corner and kill it for good, before they run out of healing resources themselves. That means either setting a trap, or tracking it back to its lair.

If there is a way to kill it for good, such a beast would surely have the self-preservation instincts to realize that it shouldn't repeatedly get whooped by the same group of thugs, lest they kill him for good. Trolls, for example, in Pathfinder, are ferocious, fearless berserkers, but even they hesitate when fire is present.

Personally, if I was a regenerator, I'd just don a suicide vest, run into the midst of the enemy, blow myself up, and then regenerate and pick up whatever loot survived the explosion.