I’m working on a horror themed game that will be set in an abandoned building. Which of the following buildings do you think would be the spookiest place to spend the night assuming a sufficiently scary back story is written for it.
Abandoned Hospital
Abandoned Insane Asylum
Abandoned Mansion
Abandoned Mortuary
Abandoned Hotel
If there is some other place you find scarier let me know.
The Hospital seems original to me... The Kingdom by Lars Von Trier should give you many ideas !
Abandoned Hospital, Abandoned Hospital!
Ooh ooh drallius tell me more man! I want to help ^^
sam
Thematically; the Asylum generates the most haunting imagery for me.
Functionally; the Hotel with its multitude of doors provides a simple way to separate ghostly encounters.
Horror is one of my favorite genres. I can't wait to see what you come up with.
It is easy to see that hospital housing Zombies, Ghosts, Cultists, Undead Rats, Extremly deformed infants and grown-ups, perhaps a succubus .... and some unknown entity, that sometimes seem like a human, and somtime like something ... else, that is behind it all ...
It may also be hard to discern what is what, and why some is like it is ... because several of the workers in the place has contributed to the mess, someone opened the portal to the realm of the dead, somone used Voodoo, someone took a body away from the Mourge ... and so on.
But, before you decide to look at it: It is NOT for the faint of hearts.
Also:
There was a US version made, called "Kingdom Hospital", it might also be inspirational, but perhaps not as much, horror-wise. You can differ the two versions easily, since the less horryfying copy has also a wierd wolf/anteater-mix called Antibus ...
...but I think the Hospital would be the worst. My one "ghostly encounter" was in a hotel, but despite that fact, I find hospitals much more frightening.
I suggest either the Hotel or the Hospital, since the audience will be more familiar with the buildings and the roles that take place in them.
A case for hospitals is the juxtaposition between healing and horror, which is probably why it is such a common trope in horror films. On the same note, its common usage might be a bad thing?
A case for hotel is that again, most people are familiar with the insides of a hotel, and many hotels are DIFFERENT, so you can add on expansions easily.
Also with hotels, people are supposed to spend the night while uninjured, so there is a lot of reason to go to one - whether on a dare, to meet someone, to stay because your car broke down, etc. Many colorful characters own, stay at, or throw parties at hotels - particularly rustic ones.
And when it comes to classic ghost stories, nothing beats creepy goings on and mysterious guests at a hotel.
Humph - guess I really meant to just say "go for hotel!"
Despite the contradiction here it seems an Abandoned Hospital is by far the favorite. Now to make a preliminary map so i have something to work from when writing the stories.
Any good abandoned hospital needs
Reception area
Administrative offices
Operating theater
Morgue
Commissary
Rooms for the patients
Boiler room with tunnels
What other rooms should i include?
Roof?
Secret porter entrance/exits?
Lift?
Childrens Ward?
Old peoples ward?
normal ward?
supply area?
pharmaecutical cupbord in each ward?
staff room?
x ray room?
ct scan room?
consultation office?
cafe?
shop?
emergency room?
hosts of long spooky corridoors?
specimen laboratory?
blood bank?
When I worked as a porter in a big London hospital - this is the kind of stuff we had :)
I still don't quite get the game though man, is it a book? Or tied to a story book or something?
s
Hi Dralius,
"Worst" meaning "worst to spend the night in" - guess I wasn't too clear on that point :)
Many hospitals seem to have labs or places to run different tests. You might also see some kind of room for physical therapy.
Long, dark hallways with lots of doors would probalby fit any locale...
I cant' wait to see where this project is headed - good luck!
Sam
What im working on is an expansion of interactive fiction in a in a non- digital form. Here are some examples(http://www.cyoa.com/) if you have never read one. There are other brands as well. So yes it will have a book, a fairly big one since we will have 8 stories with multiple paths though each.
The differences between them and what im trying to accomplish is you will have the visual aid of a map with character pieces that you will move. A few of these books I have read have you keep stats for health. Abandoned will do that, have equipment to pick up and be time sensitive so it’s not only important where you are but when you get there. The other feature will be that you can play it with a group without the need of a DM and the players will be able to split up if they dare. This way they can follow their own storyline or die trying. I also plan on having the peril scale to the number of players.
Thanks for the input
Wow cool sounds fun :)
Yes ive read a couple of those "to slay the goblin go to page 8" kind of books when I was younger :)
And read a LOT of IF actually as well, some recent ones kick a lot of ass. In fact, there is a prize winning one already about called Beyond Bedlam - or something Bedlam, or Beldam something which one the xyzzy awards recently (the IF awards) and its a great read.
BUT surely having a single track book (eg: read from page 0 to page 100 in a straight forward manner unless instructed otherwise) will be hard to allow for other players as well? How will you accomplish the fact that each of the 4 players wants to take a different decision? As soon as 4 decisions are made by each player, you will have to balance for 256 different outcomes right? (4 to the power of 4?)
sam
Simply splitting the players up is easy as having each go to a different paragraph in the book and moving their pieces on the board. What will be tricky is keeping track of the game (story) state.
Is that cat dead? Y
Did the murderer see someone and is now alerted to their presence? N
Has the incantation been read? N
Notice these are all yes/no questions. If im tracking those there are only 2x2x2 =8 possible combinations which can be denoted in a binary form 100 = cats dead, murderer is not aware, & the spell has not been cast.
How do we track binary numbers and keep the meaning a secret from the players? Along the border of the map we can have a set of state tracking boxes + & - each with a letter; A,B,C,D assigned to it. The book will instruct the players to change these when appropriate and also reference them to help determine the outcome of actions.
You can see the scope of what im trying to do. To pull it off im not only going to need to write interesting stories but have the game operate smoothly enough so player aren’t distracted so they can become immersed in the game. If I get this ready for testing by Protospiel I’ll be lucky.
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Ooh ooh drallius tell me more man! I want to help ^^
sam
I’m very early on in the development of this idea which I’m working on under the title Abandoned. I picked the title not just because of the abandoned building but it has a bleak sound to it. The thought of being on your own when there is danger… hopelessness… etc…
The game is a multi player (1-4) chose your own adventure board game with some random elements. Each story will have many different paths and outcomes. Unlike most games that have a specific goal Abandoned is to be played for the experience of it with the players determining whether they did well or not based on the outcome and the enjoyment of the story they take part in.
The group has chosen to go into an abandoned building at night for one of 8 reasons which will be the story starters. These are what we came up with in a chat room brainstorming session.
1. The Dare: You are dared to stay overnight to prove you are brave.
2. Ghost Hunters: You decide you’re going to prove its haunted by getting pictures
3. Treasure Hunters: You know this place has hidden riches and you plan on finding them.
4. Any port in a storm: Your car breaks down in a blizzard; you take refuge for the night.
5. Detective: something happened here and you are going to find out what and why.
6. Drawn: Something inexplicable is compelling you to enter this place, why, what?
7. Rescue Mission: Someone you love is missing and you think you’ll find them here.
8. Hide: On the run you hide from the authorities.
The story will unfold from there, with plot twists, unexpected events, and hopefully a suspenseful feeling.