A 1666 Horror Crawl

I developed the Bridge of Death scenario because I wanted to roll dice one weekend but did not want to pull out my miniatures or run one of my RPG campaigns. Essentially, I wanted a light RPG-like experience without all the fuss. 

Given my latest craze for the 17th century, I decided to place the game in my 1666 setting

What Rules?

What rules should I use for my RPG-like game?

I looked into Silver Bayonet, but it is a straight up miniatures game. Nevertheless, it gave me the idea of a horror-based campaign.

I also thought of using my homebrew, D12 RPG rules, but those don't seem well suited for horror. In those rules, the PCs are a bit too heroic.

Age of Heroes, a free set on Lead Adventure Forum, seemed like a possibility but I wasn't sure how to make them horrifying.

Ultimately, I began to think of brewing up my own rules.

What's a Good Horror Game?

I don't really have a lot of experience with horror games, so I began to ponder what I needed in a homebrew set. I then started thinking about games that provided a feeling of horror.

That's when I thought of . . .

Yeah, I know. Weird to think of B-17 as a horror game. But I think it has some elements that make a good horror game. For example,

• A feeling of helplessness - there is very little that the player can do to prevent or mitigate German attacks. Basically, you just have to sit there and take it.
• Death is ever present - Crewmen die regularly, and most planes will end up as twisted heaps at some point. Every time you play, there is this sense of impending doom.
• Increasing tension - despite their bleak prospects, you get attached to your plane and crew. Combined with the previous two points, this makes missions very tense affairs. The tension increases as you get closer to the target and the opposition stiffens. It gets worse when you drop your bombs and try to nurse your damaged plane back home.
• Catharsis - if your plane and crew do manage to survive, you get this strong sense of relief.

The Horror Crawl Takes Shape

With the above points in mind, I began shaping the rules.

• Like B-17, the characters will proceed through zones as they approach their objective.
• To increase the tension, however, I won't know how many zones to get to the objective. Instead, after each zone I'll roll to see if it's the last.
• The party will include a couple of major characters, whom I will give upgrades a la Age of Heroes. I expect to get attached to them and their careers. Of course, Hans Neimand will be the primary character,
• The party will include some minions, who will be very fragile. I expect many to die.
• Like B-17, enemies will tend to pop out, seemingly from nowhere, attack, and then melt back into the darkness.

To adjudicate events, I am using the base MicroBattle system, applying advantages or more likely disadvantages as warranted. I am still tweaking things.

Irony

As I mentioned, I wanted a game without miniatures, but I ended up using miniatures (meeples actually) to track positions and casualties. 

It actually worked fairly well so I ordered some miniatures to use as markers.