I want to run a cosmic horror mystery for my players on Halloween. The plot is they are survivors of a shipwreck on a strange landmass with ruins and such. I’m sort of torn between setting it in a sci-fi world where they are surviving passengers in a crashed spaceship and setting it in a more modern-day world.
We’ve been playing dungeon world for months now, and I wanted to try out a game of pbta with a modern twist.
I know there are a boatload of hacks, but I wanted to see if anyone out there knew of which one might work for this plot? Both sci-fi and modern suggestions would be appreciated!
Thanks!
World of adventure might manage the sci-fi elements, though it doesn’t have a very cosmic horror theme
Seems like Apocalypse World might actually work for this. The assumption of the Psychic Maelstrom maps well to cosmic horror.
Adventures on Dungeon Planet?
If you want to keep it simple, try Black Stars Rise, which is a modern horror hack from Sage and Adam. You could easily adjust the Last Gas setup for a lost at sea or shipwreck scenario.
black-stars-rise.appspot.com – Black Stars Rise
What about Monster of the Week?
These are all great suggestions! I think I’m gonna go with black star rises. I love the open ended Modern mystery, but with the “setup” rules it will be perfect for a one shot.
I was going to say Monster of the Week, too. Or one of the Cthulhu PbtA hacks.
Impulse Drive beta for SciFi? Maybe Blades in the Dark for a steampunk version? Or Scum and Villainy?
Mark Tygart I was going to introduce Brethren Moons from Dead Space had my Impulse Drive campaign continued.
We ended up playing black star rise, and had a lot of fun. We did the last gas setup. It was super fun and turned into a pretty goofy game where players ended up in a top secret underground film studio where they made bazaar intergalactic cable-like tv shows such as Slay or be Slayed.
I really wish that game would be developed more. Some of the rules were unclear to myself and the players, and it really felt like the moves provided for the game could be expanded upon (something I could’ve done on my own I realize now).either way we had a super fun time and now I wanna check out all these other games everyone’s suggested. Thanks!
shawn brewer Sounds like an interesting hack, I’ll have to have a look at it.