horror-game-fanatic

[horror-game-fanatic]

A Journey Through Time

How long has it been? I have a document on here saying at least 4 years. That doesn't make sense though. Time can't simply have disappeared that fast.

Can it?

I have alot more free time and this has really been on my mind. Hopefully I will get to play this sometime before I die.

[horror-game-fanatic]

I am dead.

Or I was.

I’m working on a lot of personal things right now (as everyone is) but I’ve put time away to get back to work on stuff I actually like doing.

Will post more soon.

[horror-game-fanatic]

I’m not dead! COVID has everyone busy these days. I’m still working on the enemies and parts list. We should be able to start ply testing after I finish the perks list. More to follow.

[horror-game-fanatic]

The Infected (Survival Horror Manual)

The Infected –

It is a dark lonesome night. I am huddled away in my shelter, my hands pressed against my mouth, and my eyes shut tight. I hear the moan, the shuffle of feet, and smell the stench of rot in the air. The moan is low and guttural, its deep and feels heavy as if the maker of the noise cannot do much more than allow an escape of air from its otherwise unresponsive body. A body that seems to be more of a suit than flesh itself. It hangs in places like rags, it sags like a wet sack filled with dirty water, and the smell. Oh God the smell. They are dead, I know they are, but God I can see them move about as if in a daze… and alive. They are searching for me; it is only a matter of time. God help me. God help us all…” – Wilmer Drisk

The Infected enemy is by all accounts, that which has been “infected”. Be it whether a virus made in a lab by man or a curse brought down upon the earth by Gods. It could also be corpses that have been reanimated through dark and/or sinister magic. Because of its lack of intelligence, a zombie of any kind will be very rudimentary and straightforward. The Infected is also any creature type that can either spread its disease or virus or can “infect” other targets through some means. They can follow simple tasks, they can do very simple actions, but unless controlled by any other force; zombies follow three basic rules:

1. They need to feed. 2. They never sleep. 3. They push forward, regardless of what is in their way.

Any creature can become a zombie type, provided they follow the worlds rules as to how to become a zombie. Some rules state that zombies can only be created by the dead scratching or biting a living creature. That is the most common but not always the main reason. It is up to the DM to decide how the virus or curse is transferred, IF it is at all. There are worlds where zombies serve a master and have only been made by them for them and thus no amount of biting or scratching will change another into one of the undead. Other worlds show that regardless of how the living target dies, they will reanimate as the undead. There are more versions of the Infected than just the ‘zombie’ trope so we will refer to them as the ‘Infected’ for the purposes of this category.

Hit Dice: When calculating the health of an Infected, double the HP of the target. The Infected should always have more HP than the players or NPC’s, or even any other living creature. They are harder to put down and take more damage and that should be represented in how much HP they have. If a standard NPC has 10 HP, when they reanimate, they should have 20. If they have taken damage before they turned then they will come back at full health. All damage prior to Infection is in void (unless of extenuating circumstances such as explosive damage or a separation of limbs).

*Please refer to Hit Die section to calculate proper health*

Speed: All speed for Infected must reduce to its lowest rating. A standard NPC can move up to 15 feet within one reaction, so an Infected should be only able to move 5 feet and be considered clumsy. They can, however, move every reaction, even the players. They have the Unstoppable perk, which means they cannot stop moving until either they are destroyed or otherwise incapable of moving forward. Whether it is crawling or shuffling forward, an Infected must always be moving. That means, on its reaction, on any players reaction, or any NPC’s reaction, the infected can and should move. If the base creature can fly, before infection, then it can do so after infection.

Armor Class: The strike window for an infected should be pretty large as they are not trying to avoid being shot. The strike window must reflect whatever they are wearing at the time of their infection and can change depending on how much damage their body has taken. A 40-point strike window should be appropriate with the window increasing as their size increases.

Size Strike Window (-/+) Tiny or Smaller -15 Small -10 Medium 0 Large +10 Huge +15 Gargantuan +20 Colossal +30

Base Attack: Damage in this system is very unforgiving. A typical NPC or player should only be able to handle two, maybe three hits, tops. As such, damage for the Infected (and all classes) should be calculated from their base hit die and then add their STR mod twice for damage.

Infected Size Stats Slam DMG React/Recovery Range Tiny or Smaller STR: 2 2d6 2 5 ft Small STR: +4 2d6 4 10 ft Medium STR: +6 3d8 6 20 ft Large STR: +8 4d8 8 30 ft Huge STR: +10 3d10 10 40 ft Gargantuan STR: +12 3d12 12 60 ft Colossal STR: +16 3d20 14 80 ft

Attacks: An infected retains whatever weapons they had in their hands when they died. All ranged weaponry becomes melee weaponry in the hands of an Infected. All infected have only one attack per reaction. In their repertoire they also have a slam attack and an increased grapple attack. If any target moves within, or past, an infected then the infected automatically gets grapple reaction. Target must move away, past, or through an infected threatened square for the grapple reaction to take place.

Damage: (Please refer to chart above) When grappling, add their STR mod twice (the STR mod is added to the strike window of the target twice). The reasoning is as the infected goes to grapple, they throw their whole weight on the target and thus makes it harder for their prey to escape. They must be within 5 feet of the target. When grappling, the STR mod is used to calculate hit. It must wait till its next reaction to actually damage its target. Calculate damage normally, with an additional die of damage added on. Depending on the DM’s discretion, a bite from an infected has a chance of contamination, which means the target can sustain damage over time unless, its wound is treated, and can eventually die from it. If it does, then it becomes an infected as well. It depends on how the DM wants their infected to transfer the infection. The slam-attack an infected has takes up 2 reactions per size (for example, Colossal takes 14 reactions to perform). The slam has an area of effect that doubles by ten for each size increment, except for the last two in which it increases by 20. Anything caught within the area of effect, be it enemy or ally, takes the damage. **It is important to note that AOE attacks work differently in this system. If an attack connects with multiple targets simultaneously then the damage is rolled for EACH target. There is not one set number, and everything gets that amount. The reasoning behind this is to add individuality to each player. Not everyone will take the same damage, whether it's because of perks, level, or just per luck of nature. That probability allows for each encounter to be different and unique. Certain perks can be used to mitigate the damage. ** Certain perks can be used to mitigate the damage. It is best to learn the signs of an incoming slam attack and take evasive measures to make sure the worst does not come. After the attack, the infected must take a set of time to recover. It is recommended that it takes the same amount of time to recover as it takes to perform the slam attack.

*For harder difficulties (or DM’s discretion), the react/recovery time should be cut in half. *

Special Attacks: It depends on any attributes the infected have taken on, if any, but typically the infected retain none of the base creatures’ special attacks. Depending on any cross mutations (see The Mutated section for more information), the infected can take on a number of elemental properties so long as it makes sense narratively.

Special Qualities: Unless otherwise noted by the DM, a standard infected loses all the special qualities of its base creature. It does retain any extraordinary qualities that improves its melee attacks.

Resistances: An infected feels no pain and thus has resistances to all damage types except for fire. As such, any damage done to an infected automatically gets a -5 damage reduction. If fire is used or a fire-based weapon is used, then the infected takes two additional die of damage.

Skills: An Infected has no skills. Perks: An infected loses all the feats of the base creature but does gain Unstoppable

Size: An Infected comes in seven sizes:

SIZE COMPARISON Tiny or smaller Small child, domestic animal, bird Small Young kid, large cat, wolf Medium Human, lion, pony Large Horse, bear, rowboat Huge Ogre, small car, elephant Gargantuan House, blue whale, yacht Colossal Ship, dragon, jumbo jet

Challenge Rating: Most infected, by themselves, are low on the challenge rating. However, in groups, or multi-classed with other enemy categories, they can quickly rise up to become quite formidable foes. Even one infected, no matter what size, should be seen as a threat, simply because of these possibilities.

((I spent forever trying to bring the tables I made over to Tumblr without success so if you wish to see this in a much more professional light please let me know or wait for the finished product.))

[horror-game-fanatic]

Enemy Creation (Survival Horror Manual)

CREATING A CREATURE: All classes and thus creatures will have categories that must all be taken into consideration when populating your game. Below we will talk about each class and given a more in-depth explanation to each category. Please note that not all the numbers shown here have to be used. It is up to the DM to create a proper atmosphere for their game as well as use stats that feel appropriate to the game they are running. Also, the enemies must always be much more terrifying than the players. That’s the point of the game. Keep that in mind as you read on. As said before, each class has a set of categories that must go into creating the enemy. They can always be tweaked and twisted, but the explanations below will give you a base line to work with. Hit Dice Speed Armor Class Base Attack Attacks Special Attacks Special Qualities Resistances Skills Perks Size Challenge Rating

[horror-game-fanatic]

Weaponry (Survival Horror Manual)

It’s been a minute, I know!

So I have finally cracked how weapons work. This is still being refined, mind you, but its solid enough to put on paper.

So last we talked, I touched on the fact that instead of specific weapons, there will be categories of weapon types and the DM will have to come up with the specifics if they want the players to know they have anything other than a pistol or shotgun or melee weapon, etc. Now I have devised how each weapon category works. 

So what we have is three attributes that goes with all the weapon categories. Save for special weapons, (which will be covered later), we have the basic groups:

Pistols

Shotguns

Rifles

Heavy

Special

Melee

Obviously this is just a basic list to get the game off the ground. They will be expanded upon and fleshed out as test playing commences. For the explanation of this system I wills tick with pistols for now. Before I begin, I want you to know that I am not taking a 5e tradition approach to damage, but rather a more buffed 3.5e approach. I want every weapon to feel substantial. A human being should not be able to take like six shots and keep going, or four dozen beatings to the head with a melee weapon and shrug it off like they’re Broly, okay? So as we explain the creature categories in later posts, take into consideration that they are enemies, not like us common folk. Look at the revamped Resident Evil 2; on normal difficulties a normal zombie can take two or three headshots before its put down. That's because it does not feel pain like a human, as well as the fact that the brain processes WAY differently than their living counterparts. A human on the other hand, can take one shot (MAYBE two, depending on where it was shot and what shot it), but lets be realistic here. That’s what we are going for after all. The odds are stacked against the players, at all time, or else its not survival horror, its not even survival. So something as simple as a pistol should definitely do more than a typical humans HP should ever be able to surpass. That way every fight, every encounter, every run in with even another NPC, could be life or death. The tension should always be constant and the stress should always be high.

And we all know what stress does in this system. 

Alright, so lets go over my attributes. Each weapon will have three qualities:

Damage

Speed

Quality

Damage is how much dice you roll if your attack connects. A pistols damage is 4d6, which can be a max of 24 if you roll all 6′s. Rare, but it can happen. Speed is how fast your weapon fires during each Reaction. Since we have replaced rounds with Reactions, battle is a lot more fluid and can constantly change. Speed is increased by an increment of 4. The speed of a pistol is 10, so that means you can get two shots off per Reaction. If you went of standard D&D rules, a round takes six seconds. I am not trained in gun weaponry at all and even I know I can get more shots off in less than six seconds. Why we changed this old rule was for this reason. While you may have built of tension for your players through your atmosphere and general difficulty, everything would always slow down to the same old crawl of hitting once and then waiting and then attacking again and then waiting and then attacking again...

With a speed rating, combined with the Reaction control, you could potentially end a fight in your first go around, granted your Reaction is good and your attacks don’t miss. Think of playing The Last of Us. You really want to run through a warehouse filled with enemies and not be able to chain attacks? Six enemies up in this place and you have to enter and roll initiative for each one and then take damage from each one and piss off the rest and not come up with strategies an-- you get the idea. Try it before you knock it.

Quality is random. Unless otherwise stated by the DM, every weapon a player comes across should come with a roll of a dice. There are three tiers; low, common, and high. Since we have included the system that weapons can be upgradable, this idea really shines through. Every time a weapon is found or picked up, a dice should be rolled secretly. You, as a DM, will decide if the weapon fits into one of these three tiers. 

Low - The weapon has a high misfire chance and only has one upgrade slot available.

Common - The misfire chance is lower but still there and it has two or three ways to upgrade.

High - While the misfire chance is really low, it is still present but it also has the highest possibilities for upgrades. Typically no more than four.

Going off the upgrade section just real quick, upgrades can come in several varieties such as speed reloaders, increased magazines, damage outputs, scopes, etc.

Once an upgrade is attached to a weapon, it can’t be taken off without a certain perk. One of he basic perks will allow players the ability to attach upgrades successfully, but a later perk will be needed to remove them. This will also potentially punish the player if they want to be more risky with their decisions and don’t take the perk and instead leave their fate to the dice. The speed and damage would be set, but depending on the place in the story and DM’s discretion, I’d say that some weapons would already have upgrades on them. 

A weapons quality wouldn’t be a known fact at first glance either, unless you have a specific perk, until you actually use the weapon. It might be dirty, it might be busted, or jammed, or in a major need of servicing. If you are going through a forest and stumble across a weapon, unless you are trained to use said weapon, you cannot honestly believe you can just pick it up and use it. Melee weapons may be more obvious in their telling of it they are good or not, but a pistol, though caked in mud, may actually be in rather good condition. Or one found in a drawer next to a box of bullets, while scavenging supplies, may have not been used in so long that it needs oiling. Upgrades on a weapon can be seen on sight.

Speed would only increase in increments of 2. A pistol starts with a 10, but you find an upgrade that raises the firing speed, so now it fires at a 12. That means you can now get 3 shots off per reaction! That’s a lot of shots. With each shot doing 4d6 damage, you have the possibility of 72 damage in one Reaction. Think of the possibilities. Now that may not be much for a low tier weapon, that could increase exponentially for common or high tier qualities. Like I said, a weapon should be dangerous and a player needs to feel the weight of that responsibility. Risk the spent bullets, noise, and misfires but pump out some damage, or conserve your shots and focus on surviving. 

Shotguns would a little differently; obviously they aren’t fast, but with enough upgrades they can be. Rifles are powerful and fast, but have a high chance of misfiring. 

Let’s touch on Misfire real quick, actually. This is a mechanic that effects all weapon types, despite it sounding like it only effects ranged weapons. Think of it like the Wild Magic Table for a Sorcerer in 5e. Every time you roll to attack, you will see if you hit. If successful, you will roll your damage. Based on the weapon type (lets keep going with pistols), you will roll your damage (4d6) AND THEN roll your weapons base die (1d6). This is called your Misfire Chance. A misfire chance can be anything from your weapon jams, to the handle breaks, to the gun ricochets and hits you, to the weapon fails you in some way. In fact, it is optional, but the DM can use a table (created in a later post) that details just exactly what your weapon does. This brings a sense of stress to each encounter. You will roll the base die after your roll your damage. Each quality tier will have a different misfire chance;

Low: Evens or Odds

Common: Call the number and if you land on it then you fail.

High: Roll a one (1) on the base die.

As you can see, the chance for a mess up is always there. The chances are slimmer the better quality your weapon, but the presence of failure always looms. The Misfire Chance will have to be tweaked, of course, for different types of weapons but as I make the chart, I will add those effects. I like the idea that even a well seasoned soldier can have a mistake and I also like how we have gotten away from the D20 being a deciding factor in all of this. 

There has been a lot of information thrown out so let’s recap: There are categories for weapons. Each category of weapon has three attributes; damage, speed, and quality. Depending on the quality, a weapon has a chance to misfire or fail. Upgrades can be attached to weapons to not only decrease this oversight, but also to increase weapon damage and speed as well as do a variety of effects. Qualities should be randomized by a roll unless otherwise stated by a DM. Players will need certain perks to properly handle certain weapons as well attached and dismantle upgrades. 

Weapons have real power and must be used responsibly. A shot or swipe of a weapon can easily take down another player or NPC and in most cases, an enemy. Ammo or resources should always be scarce and the tension and stress should always be high. Remember DM’s, this system is made to put the odds in the favor of the enemies, not the players. Your players did not come to play Resident Evil or even Left 4 Dead, to feel like the king of the world. They came to play a game that’s thought outside of the box. A game that will challenge them and maybe even frustrate them. A game that will force them to survive.

We are almost ready people. The horror is coming.

[horror-game-fanatic]

Weaponry (Survival Horror Manual)

I have spent the last month trying to come up with a decent weaponry mechanic for this system. The problem with weapons is not the weapons themselves but the details in them. Do I separate each weapon? Do I make period categories? How many periods do I need to go back or forward with? How do I do ammo? Do they all have to be specific or do you just find a box? 

I’ve decided that I am going to make a default set of weapons. They will not have specific names but rather a category.

Ex: Rifle, Pistol, Submachine Gun, Shotgun, etc.

Each weapon type will have a set hit die that can be tweaked at the DM’s discretion. They will also have different types of ammo that can be found. 

I think to begin with, I will limit this to only regular, high powered, and explosive. 

This way the DM can choose a time period and have base stats to go off. In modern times, an assault rifle could be AK-47, but say you go back to World War 1, and the typical assault rifle back then was a Marlin Model 1894. Not so much an assault rifle as it was a service rifle or rather a Carbine, but you get the gist. 

I like this idea. What do you think?

[horror-game-fanatic]

Stress (Survival Horror Manual)

Stress.

Oh man, what a day. So stress was briefly talked upon in a few posts past, but this one will be dedicated to the mechanic. Stress is a VERY integral part to how this survival horror manual works and how games are played. It is a unique mechanic that I have made up that I have not really seen in anything else, save for the madness meter in Cthulhu based games. For these games to work it is very important that both the players and the DM knows how stress affects everything.

Now that I say it out loud, the ‘Stress’ mechanic is derived from a lot of what the Madness meter was originally thought of; a way to make the player feel out of control. A great deal of actions and interactions affect the characters stress and depending on how high the stress level is, negative consequences come from that. It is up to the player to try their best to keep control, keep calm, and do not panic.

So unlike the rest of the game, you have a STRESS counter. It is based off the D20 die. It will sit in the corner of your paper or character area and will silently judge you and everything you do for the entirety of the game. We will discuss both IN COMBAT and OUT OF COMBAT situations.

During combat, each round, you will raise your STRESS meter by 1. Some perks may allow you to bypass this or reduce it, but never stop it. Stress is inevitable. Even for the battle hardened veterans, you still see and feel stress. 

*It is important to note that all characters have a STRESS THRESHOLD. It is 10 + Wisdom Modifier. (Wisdom +3 so 10+3=13: Threshold) Once this threshold is met, the character will PANIC.*

If the player panics, whether in combat or not, they lose control of their character. It is the DM’s responsibility to roll a percentile. You must roll it in front of the player so as to not show favoritism. 

                   EVENS = FIGHT            ODDS = FLIGHT

The Fight/Flight mode is a natural process from all living things. When in a stress situation, a living thing will either get angry and try to fight out of it or they will get scared and try to run from it. Either way, its a result of what happens when you just can’t take it anymore. Regardless of whichever mode they fall into, the player has no control of the character anymore. 

If a player gets EVENS, their character goes into FIGHT MODE. If the character is holding a weapon, they will either expend all the ammo they have on whatever enemy or party member is around them, or they will use the weapon to its maximum effect. Either way, neither the party nor the enemy is safe from the panicked individual. It may sound like a nice ‘rage’ mode to channel that energy into attacking your enemies, but everyone is a threat to the panicked one and should treat them as such accordingly. 

The character can only leave fight mode if another character forces them to stop and/or either calm down or become incapacitated. You should view this as a person who is actually panicking and act accordingly. Think of all the scary movies out there where there is always one character who just loses their minds and either does something that hurts the whole party or has to be slapped around to regain control. Like that, but to a stronger degree. Fight mode, the character will have a bonus to reaction and a bonus to attack, but all creatures are considered hostile. The DM will assess the situation, assign all targets a number, and roll accordingly. Depending on the number, that panicked player will do something to that numbered target and so on. The other players can use their round to try and calm the other player, but they must be able to touch the player and physically stop them. At this stage, words just won’t cut it, so don’t expect to sit safely on the other side of the room and ‘talk’ your way out of this confrontation. 

If the player lands on ODDS, their character goes into FLIGHT mode. This is the classic Scooby/Shaggy scene where the character will do absolutely everything in their power to escape the current situation; even if it means hurting the other party members. Remember, you are panicking right now; nothing you do should make sense. While this mode does not have the immediate threat of harm to your fellow teammates, your character may stumble across an even worse fate. As you lose control of your character and they run away, the DM will randomly assign you somewhere else on the map. Think Brad Vickers from Resident Evil 1. They chickened out and flew away, leaving all of the team behind to fend for themselves. After he calmed down, he realized he wasn’t sure where he was and had to reorient himself and come back to the mansion. It took a long while and he didn’t show up till the end. 

That may not happen to you, persay, but you will panic and you will run. The DM will randomly place you somewhere else on the map, within reason. You cannot go through locked doors that require keys that you don’t have, or puzzles that you haven’t solved, and they can’t place you in a room that they knowingly put enemies in. Much like Fallout, you can’t rest if their are enemies present. 

After you have calmed down, you either will have to make your way back to your parties last known location or have to continue on your own. It is a good, solid, and logical way to progress the story as well as force players to think on their own; something I stressed in the first post. 

REACHING 20

So obviously, a D20 has a limit. 20. When a character is in panic mode, all stress levels are doubled. Instead of gaining 1, you gain 2. If a character reaches 20 they run the risk of going ‘CATATONIC’. Basically your character passes out from fear.

Not a good idea.

When you reach 20, you will be given a chance to roll a stat die, or a D4. You will call EVENS/ODDS. If you roll wrong, you gain a fail save. If you roll correctly, you get a pass save. You must gain 3 of either to complete the task. Every time you roll for a save, you can re-roll the FIGHT/FLIGHT mechanic, if the situation allows. It wouldn’t make sense to suddenly go into fight mode and you are already in a room with no enemies or party members. If you gain 3 fails before you reach the passes, your character goes catatonic and passes out. It doesn’t matter where they are or what they are doing at the time, their legs just give out under them. If you pass then you are still panicked, but not in danger of passing out and your stress level goes down. It always has a chance to go back up to 20, however, so it’s important to always be alert.

WAYS TO REDUCE STRESS:

- Calm down (either through the passage of time or through the Clarity perk)

- Find a Safe Room

- Party members calm you down (either through force or talking) 

There are perks for handling stressful situations and for helping those who have panicked or are about to panic. It is okay to give out that  knowledge to other players through the use of in game role-play, such as facial features or words that are said. Additionally, they can ask the DM how stressed out another player looks and they can describe it. This is especially useful when you are with NPC’s and their rolls are not known. 

So recap: Stress is based on the D20. It goes up each round in combat or every ‘sticky’ or stressful situation. DM’s discretion. Your stress threshold is 10+WIS MOD and can be tweaked with perks and levels. When a player panics, the DM rolls to see if they fight or flight. Player then loses control of character and DM acts with them accordingly, either damaging themselves or those around them. If you stay panicked long enough to reach 20 on the die, you roll to see if you go catatonic or not. You get three chances to pass or fail. You fail; you pass out and fate decides what to do with you. You pass; you calm down just a bit but are still panicking. Each roll comes with a re-roll of the Fight/Flight, if the situation allows it. Ways to calm down involve your party members, finding a safe room, over the passage of time, or with the Clarity perk. 

This is a very important mechanic that can not be modded out if you want to stay true to Survival Horror. Think of when the dog jumped through the glass, for the first time, in Resident Evil. Or the weird bird thing in the beginning of Silent Hill. Or your first ghost encounter in Fatal Frame (or ANY ghost encounter for that matter). The point is, fear and stress go hand in hand. In order to simulate a fear based scenario, the player must deal with their stress levels. In a game where you cannot regain HP and time moves in real time (events happen with or without the players involvement), juggling limited resources, dealing with harder than you enemies, AND keeping your stress levels in check will really amp up the terror one feels as they play.

[horror-game-fanatic]

Perks (Survival Horror Manual)

So I have come up with a preliminary list of perks for the system. I admit I may have gone a bit overboard, and have sat on it for a few days to see if I could trim it down. I’ll post what I have and we will see what comes of it.

So each tree is broken up by its base stat (STR,DEX, CON, etc...) and each tree has ten beginning perks. Each one of those perks have three upgrades inside of it that players can put points into to obtain as they level up. As we discussed earlier, points are given by level, experience, and especially (and most importantly) by their level of involvement. It is important for the DM to acknowledge the players that are doing the most to enrich the story and reward them accordingly. Points given by DM’s can be used in any stat, but all previous rules must still apply. Also, alot of the perks will have prerequisites; like having a base stat level a certain amount or you must have already have another perk in order to obtain a perk. Right now all perks and upgrades cost points, which was outlined in the previous post. The first level will only cost 1 point, the second level will cost 2, the third will cost 3, and the fourth will cost 4. It will take 10 points to obtain the whole tree for a perk, which doesn’t sound alot at first but if you take into consideration that some perks require you to have other perks and you only can use the points in that base stat then it will take a few levels to get what the player wants. And thats okay. We want the players to be involved, get rewarded, but we also want the players to remember that this game is meant to kill you. Regardless of how many perks you have, the survival in survival horror is still very prominent and MUST be taken into consideration when rewarding your players. 

Like I said, I will just give the main perk first in each list. I am still working on the upgrades and how they all balance out with each other.

STRENGTH: Combat Training / Athletics / Iron Fist / Endless Anger / Harden / Heavy Handed / Juggernaut / Short Wire / Give. It. Back. / Revenge

DEXTERITY: Focus / Stealth / Acrobatics / Dead Eye / Guntastic / Click. Click. Boom / Magic Fingers / Trespass / Relentless / High Velocity

CONSTITUTION: Impact / Defense / Health Pack / Assault / Shotgun Expert / Rapid Barrage / Stockpile / Fitness / Pain Insensitive / Heavy Picker-Upper

INTELLIGENCE: Books! / Investigation / Mechanics / Technology / Trap Extraordinaire / Combat Tactics / Know When to Throw ‘Em / Crafty / Insomniac / Analyze

 WISDOM: Survival / Herbalist / Clarity / Poison Control / Animals-R-Us / Intuition / Supply Drop / Medic! / Out For Blood / Ransack

CHARISMA: Coercion / Hard To Get / Killer Queen / Decepticon / Sticky / Assemble! / NIGH Diamond! / Action Hero / Endowed / Lucky #7

Pretty interesting list, huh? Each stat has ten perks and each perk will have three upgrades. A separate list of perks will also be added, but I haven’t finalized that list yet. It will have a larger list but each perk will also cost alot more. They are for more action horror themed games and also up to the DM’s discretion of whether they are allowed or not. As the game gains popularity, I will also add supplements and tweaks to the perks list so that characters can have more freedom to build as they want. 

I will detail each perk more properly in a later post, as well as list the upgrades. For now, what do you think? Is the perk list too much? Should we eliminate it all together? I took inspiration from Dead By Daylight, How To Survive, as well as Borderlands and Dragon Age. I liked the idea of how a player can build a character with buffs but still be a human being. Do not think that this list makes characters too fantastical or more powerful. They will still be squishy humans ready for the slaughter. This idea just let them feel like they have more... control. You want them to have a false sense of security, you know. 

The meat tastes better if you flavor it.

[horror-game-fanatic]

Stats (Survival Horror Manual)

Interesting mechanic I have worked on; stats. So originally I was going to have stats much like all the other D&D systems out there. In fact, it was derived from 3.5 and 5E and would be expanded upon using the storytellers system. A friend helped me solidify it a  bit more in my head, causing me to rethink the storyteller system. It is not a bad system, at all, but in order to make this a more original system I want to see how this new mechanic would work.

Bear with me here as I am  till fresh off the idea and still working on it in my head.

So in the beginning you will roll stats for the character. They will still be the same basic six:

Strength

Dexterity

Constitution

Intelligence

Wisdom

Charisma

What sets these six apart from the other systems is that they have only one relevance to the course fo the game and that is skill points. Each stat will have a skill tree with various perks and skills you can unlock. When you roll your stat you will roll 3 D4′s. The max you can have is a 12, the minimum is a 3. The vanilla system will not have any rerolling of 1′s and 2′s but as you are the DM of this world, if you wish, you can allow it.

1 - 3 = +1

4 - 6 = +2

7 - 9 = +3

10 - 12 = +4

The system is designed to not be in the players favor. I know that sounds harsh and makes others go ‘hmmm’ but hear me out. Each modifier is thus converted into skill points. You can only use the skill points obtained for that particular stat. Say you rolled a total of 4 in Strength. So that means you have a +2 modifier. As such you now have 2 points you can use in the Strength Perk Tree. You roll a 10 in Dexterity so your modifier is +4. You now have 4 points to use in the Dexterity Perk Tree. The points in Dexterity cannot be used in Strength and vice versa. 

They can only be used in the stat they are associated with. 

Good news though! Every time you level up, you get to roll a new D4. The player MUST call out what stat they are rolling for, beforehand, but whatever they roll they get to add that many skill points to their skill pool. They then can use those said points to ‘upgrade’ their character with new perks. And yes, you can store your points away as well, so you don’t need to feel like you HAVE to use hem each time you level up. As we discussed earlier (did we?) your players should all level up differently. It is actually recommended you level up all your players differently and at different levels as it is seen as a kind of reward to them. The players that interact with the world and do more in character things, or are just more skilled based on their characters backstory and experience, should be different levels from other players in the group. It adds a competitive edge to the game as well as showcasing that some characters are just better suited for the situation at hand. 

As I read over this I find that I may not be making sense. I’ll continue and try to wrap it all up at the end.

So each Skill Perk Tree will have twenty (20) or more skills and perks you can obtain in them. However the character can only level up to level 10. So that means the characters will not get ALL the perks so they must pick and choose which perk they want and plan in advance. Another thing is that some perks and skills will cost more than just 1 skill point, especially if they are better abilities. 

The various Perk Trees are coming in a later post.

You may have noticed that I put the word ‘skills’ in there alot when talking about the Perk Trees. I was going to incorporate a skill list, much like 3.5 to give the players different options but I felt it was too limiting. Not in mechanics so much but in story telling in general. You can walk into a room and just say “I investigate the room” and something happens. Or worse, you get really detailed in how you investigate a room or particular scene and hope to gleam some special information because of how well you presented it, just to roll a bad roll and watch it all crumble. So instead everything you want to do is based on the percentile, as mentioned in earlier posts, much like a D20 homebrew game where everything is based on the D20 die. In the Perk Trees you will find these skills however, such as in Strength you will find Athletics.

You have the points to obtain it and it becomes yours, making anything your character does that is Athletic get a bonus to the roll. They will cost alot so you can’t just grab it from the get go, but proper planning and you can have an overall bonus added to your rolls as well as specific perks and bonuses. 

So in summary; you roll your six stats. You roll 3 D4′s and don’t reroll any numbers unless the DM says otherwise. Your modifiers instead become your Skill Pool and they can only be used in that specific stat skill tree. BUT they can stack and be hoarded for later levels and thus pre-planning. Within the Perk Trees are the actual skills one would find in previous game systems and after obtaining them you get an overall bonus to anything that involves that type of skill. 

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Inventory (Survival Horror Manual)

Inventory is going to be a big thing. Too many games I watch DM’s say they don’t care about your items because they don’t want to deal with the weight issue. That, in itself, is a very convoluted thing that I guess they put in for more hardcore players because I have very rarely needed to regulate it nor keep track of it. However, a survival horror game wouldn’t be very survivalist if you didn’t control the inventory of your character. But you can’t just use the simple “watch your weight!” mechanic either. 

So I have taken inspiration from, of all games, Resident Evil. If you have played ANY of the games, one of their staples is controlled inventory slots. Even RE6 had a controlled amount, albeit it was much larger than the rest of the games. I liked RE5′s inventory the best, or even the new revamped RE2′s system. RE5 gave you 9 slots and that was it. You had to manage armor, ammo, and guns in it and never could you make it bigger or rearrange it like you could in RE4. RE2 did a lot of the same thing, but you could find pouches that you strapped to your bodies to increase inventory room. AND it made sense as well. If you had a two handed weapon, chances are it took up two slots. 

You get the point.

SO the inventory system would be much the same way in my own system. All players would start with a baseline number of slots, which I have tried to convey as realistically as possible. A human being is not going to be able to effectively carry around three shotguns, a broken piece of some weird puzzle (that you may need two hands for), a BUNCH of boxes of ammo, some smaller guns, notes, journals, etc etc. 

Every player would start with nine slots. Depending ont he time period the game takes place as well as any items the DM believes they need starting out, that is the default. The players can find additional support during the game to carry more things. I was originally making it more convoluted, such as bringing in harasses and holsters, to hold weapons and thus free up item slots, but they would not always be available and it seems that made unneeded stress on the DM’s part. So instead the inventory system will take on an RE2/RE5 approach. You start with nine slots that can be arranged however you wish. Larger weapons or items will take up more slots accordingly, which can be expanded upon in a later post about items. Pieces of weapons or items will take up slots but if they can be combined, they may take up less slots. If you’ve played those two games in any way then you’d get what I’m going for. Like I said, pouches and backpacks can be found to upgrade a players inventory or depending on the DM’s discretion, a player may already start with these expanding items. 

I haven’t solidified it yet but I suppose simple stats would be:

Pocket Pouches = 2 additional slots

Backpacks = 6 additional slots

Something like that I would think. That way it adds more dynamics to items as well. Say you are trapped and being overrun. Maybe you get your backpack snagged on a fence or a creature has a hold of it. Maybe you die but your party comes across your body. The player can just as easily lose the backpack or pouches as they can obtain them and have to manage their inventory accordingly. Also some items you have to just be logical about. You are not going to be able to fit a 12 gauge shotgun in a backpack, that’s just not realistic. Instead, you have to hold it and may have to put it down or do some other cumbersome action to maneuver it if you need to free up your hands.

See, this is already getting convoluted. Alot of people have actually shown negativity to this decision but I think its an integral part to a game about survival and horror. Maybe you’re playing a Friday The 13th-esque game. You have to think about all these items and manage your inventory under the stress of a stalker that could be on you at any moment. Maybe you’re playing a zombie game and need to reload. Do you have an inventory slot to just a box of bullets or do you have a few clips? Are they in your backpack? How do you fish one out quickly enough to reload your pistol? LIke I said before, stress plays a big part in this game. There is even a stress meter that players need to watch out for but we will go over that later. The point is, the inventory system is controlled and small and... well, something Im still working on. I like the minimum is nine slots, it makes sense to me especially if you argue what you can and cannot hold on your person at any given time. I don’t believe I am going to worry about slings and holsters at this time. If there is a demand for that much realism then I can make a mechanic for it but for not I want the system to run smoothly and so I am trying to keep the mechanics as streamlined as possible. 

((UPDATE 11.14.24)) Slings and Harnesses will allow players to hold one item of their choice for free, any size, without taking up a normal or expanded inventory slot. The sling/harness will be a one-use item however, being only useable for one item or weapon at a time.

We also have to consider what kind of items can give you additional slots in your inventory. Take Dead Space, for example. I LOVE Dead Space and I can’t wait to run a game in that setting, but there are no obvious inventories for you to juggle with. There IS an inventory system that updates and enlarges with each upgrade of your suit though. How does that work? Where are the items? I carry around some big, mean, looking guns but where do I store them? Is it like Iron Man’s nano-machine technology? I hope not because that mechanic can be broken so fast. 

I’d personally really like some feedback on this dilemma, actually. I like the inventory slot system; Ive used it in a few homebrew games, but how do I expand on it and how do I make it work in different time settings, such as the wild west past or the distant cyberpunk future? What do you think? 

Am I looking too hard into this?

[horror-game-fanatic]

Ninth Class (Survival Horror Manual)

I have thought of another class! This one may not stick however, so I wanted to get it out while it was still fresh. So all the other classes are based on a basic form of horror. Whether its the undead or the ghost and ghouls, each enemy has a place in the classes. The 8th class is called the Stalker class, where bulking enemies such as Nemesis from Resident Evil or The Xenomorph from Alien can be found. The 9th class is called ‘The Lost’.

I will update the other post accordingly.

So where the other classes are all enemies to menace your players, the Lost is where the players GET to be the enemy. Here we will put basic stats for being a mutated undead, a special specter, a hulking tank, a supernatural menace. It can be used for a more fun experience, or if you have an idea where the players are the villains. Hard to pull off, I know, but it can be done. I have seen supplements for vampires, werewolves, and general baddies before so I think this class can be used much the same way. 

This will also allow for a bit of PVP. Something that is VERY rare in D&D is PVP. By constructing this class, I am hoping to add a new flair to the game. You could have one player be a Big Baddie and torment the other players and have a fun game of cat and mouse where the DM mediates.

Now I know you are scowling at this notion, but at least let us see how it works out before we knock it.

[horror-game-fanatic]

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Combat (Survival Horror Manual)

I believe combat should always be fluid, but I don’t want to rely on the fate of a character on just one die. So I wanted to implement a system that I derived from the Warhammer tabletop system. That system itself is very convoluted and I have always thought it was for more hardcore players. I got the inspiration from this, actually, from Resident Evil: Gaiden; the gameboy sequel that starred Barry Burton and Leon Kennedy. They were on a cruise liner but I forget the rest of the story. What made it unique is that you actually played as three characters at once, very much like an RPG. When combat started, the game went from a top down scroller game to a first person, like RE: Survivor, but everyone was stationary. The zombies or enemies moved each turn and you had a status bar that moved back and forth. Depending on the weapon, the enemy, and whos turn it was, the bar had a smaller block that moved back and forth at different speeds. Tapping the button as the block landed in a yellow window meant you successfully hit the enemy you were targeting. Miss the window and you missed your shot. It was innovative, at the time, but I played it really late and thought it was outdated. Still, I liked how it kept you focused on combat when combat happened. You couldnt just let the characters do what they wanted or rapidly press ‘X’ till the battle was over. I thought that was really engaging.

So during combat everyone will roll a REACTION. What sets REACTION apart from Initiative is that each round you roll it again. Say its you, one other player and a zombie. All three of you roll a REACTION. The other player goes first, the zombie goes, and then you go. The other player pushes the zombie away, the zombie tries to grapple the player to the ground, and you come up behind and attempt to yank the zombie off. Next round you all roll again. Now this time you get to go first, because you rolled higher, the other player goes, and then the zombie. You succeed in yanking the zombie off, throwing it off unbalanced and causing it to fall to the ground. The other player takes that opportunity to stomp on the zombies neck, snapping the bone, and defeating the zombie. See, allowing that amount of fluidity lets players feel like they are not just in rotation. It keeps the players engaged, it allows them to form combos and strategies, and it can always hurt them if they are outnumbered. Most importantly, it makes each fight unique and stressful. You may think you can handle one zombie on your own, but it rolls a higher REACTION the next round and now it has the advantage and can drop you just like that. 

I forgot to mention, you don’t roll a simple D20 for this. That is too unfair. Instead you will roll a percentile, or D100. The stats for the zombie will be explained in a different post but its the DM’s responsibility to shift the strike bar accordingly. I would recommend they not always be the same strike window. You can vary it up by explaining that they have body armor on or they are a little faster and not as decomposed as other zombies. The point is you have a bar, from 1 to 100, and you set up a strike window; say 35 to 75. They roll a percentile and get a 68. That means they succeed on their attack. You roll damage accordingly.

You face off against a Wendigo and its strike window is 40 to 60. Real hard to hit it because of how fast it is. You roll a 50 though! CRITICAL! If you ever hit the exact middle number then you automatically crit on the enemy. Smaller enemies you can kill them outright. Maybe bosses or the STALKER class, you severely wound them or temporarily put them down; like Nemesis or the Xenomorph, allowing your party to escape and regroup. See, whats interesting about this is that you can change the strike window for every creature. No two enemies will have the same, depending on their composition and general wickedness of the DM. 

I was going to make it so much more convoluted, adding in different numbers to hit different body parts, but I simplified to just these two mechanics; the strike window and the crit. That way you can draw the scene for the players however you wish and make it look cool. Items in the environment will also have a strike window, incase your players want to blow up a oil barrel or need to use a fire hydrant as a means of distraction, etc. 

This also adds a flair of unbalance to the game. The DM can make the strike window an odd number, meaning there is no set middle number to rely on for a crit, thus making the enemy impossible to crit upon. I admit, I will use this mechanic, especially on some of the Bosses or STALKER classes, but not all the time. The strike window can change depending on perks and how much damage the enemy has taken. I recommend it become easier to hit the enemy the more damage it has sustained either from the current battle or previous battles. 

So, in summary, you use a D100. You roll to hit within a strike window that is based on a set number the DM has chosen from 1 to 100. You can crit on the enemy if you hit the exact middle number between the strike window (example: 30 and 70 = 50) and can do double damage (as well as a special feature on a succeed list to be found, modified, or created later) or kill the enemy outright. 

Remember, zombies were people once too. Even the mutated ones still have the structural weaknesses a human has, (unless stated otherwise), so a shot to the head will put down most zombies. That depends on the damage of the weapon as well, which we will cover at a later time.

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Enemies (Survival Horror Manual)

I have come up with a list of enemy classes that will be fleshed out one at a time. It is the DM’s responsibility to come up with stats for the creatures, but I will go over the main categories as well as several types inside each category and finally how their stats work. I will give you the list now:

1. The Infected

2. The Mutated

3. The Crazies

4. The Cursed

5. The Damned

6. The Depraved

7. The Demon-spawn

8. The Stalker

9. The Lost (Updated:August 13th)

I will break down what I believe each category means in each of their own separate posts.

[horror-game-fanatic]

Premise (Survival Horror Manual)

The point as a DM is to kill the players. 

Most DM’s would be like “What? No its to have a rich storyline and have fun”. This is survival horror. A good story is key, yes, but in the end you are, too,  tasked with finding a way to kill the players. That doesn’t mean be mean though! You can’t just throw wave after wave of enemies at them and supe them all up to mega levels. When I say you are supposed to kill them, I mean you are supposed to make them feel like each second is precious. You have to keep your players moving, keep their anxiety up, keep their stress levels high. When you play a horror game, like Left 4 Dead, do you stop to enjoy the scenery? No you keep moving. Resident Evil? Do you barge into the next room, ready to waste whatever is on the other side? No, you are constantly checking your inventory to memorize how many bullets you have and remembering how many bullets it takes to take down an enemy and hope to GOD that the next door that opens ever so slowly does not have an enemy. Fatal Frame? Do you stare at all the ancient Japanese architecture? No, you are running for your damn life, trying to find an advantageous spot to turn and shoot the ghost who has followed you through three rooms now and does not seem to be slowing. See what I am saying? This is not some fantasy game where you basically fast travel to each destination, listening to the bard play on his lute each night and fight some bandits on the highway. The players must feel like they are in a horror game. That means reacting to every action they make. That means punishing them for not choosing wisely and it means stressing them out so much that they make that wrong choice in the first place. 

Don’t kill your players; let me make that clear right now. 

But no, seriously, try to kill your players. 

They’ll thank you for it.