Start with a name and a concept…then…
Traits and Skills
Assign the following numbers to the six traits: 3, 2, 2, 1, 1, 0
- Athlete – Athletics, Fighting, Allure, Intuition
- Intellectual – Lore, Reason, Will, Perception
- Performer – Creativity, Allure, Athletics, Spirit
- Engineer – Creativity, Fixing, Reason, Will
- Freak – Stealth, Lore, Spirit, Intuition
- Delinquent – Fighting, Stealth, Fixing, Perception
Skill ratings are a combination of the total score for each trait the skill is listed under. For instance, if you had Athlete 3, and Delinquent 3, then you would roll 5 dice for Fighting.
- Allure – Sex appeal, charisma, influence
- Athletics – Running, jumping, climbing, swimming
- Creativity – Invention, improvisation, singing, drawing
- Fighting – Guns, Knives, Fists
- Fixing – Making stuff, breaking stuff (on purpose), fixing stuff, picking locks
- Intuition – Knowing when something isn’t right, or when someone is lying to you
- Lore – Myths, legends, folklore, rituals
- Perception – Looking for things,
- Reason – Problem solving, research
- Spirit – Faith, protection against evil, exorcism
- Stealth – Hiding, sneaking, going unnoticed
- Will – Courage, obstinance
Initial Physical Endurance is Athletics, Psychological Endurance is Will, and Spiritual Endurance is Spirit
Costumes and Props
Each Intruder gets to choose 3 points worth of costumes and props.
- Holy Symbol (+1 to Spirit)
- Holy Book (+2 to Spirit)
- Moleskine Notebook (+1 to Creativity)
- Large Tattoo (+2 to Creativity)
- Swiss Army Knife (+1 to Fixing)
- Multitool (+2 to Fixing)
- Glasses (+1 to Reason)
- Laptop (+2 to Reason)
- Pentagram Pendant (+1 to Lore)
- Forbidden Tome (+2 to Lore)
- Knife (+1 to Fighting)
- Gun (+2 to Fighting)
- Short (+1 to Stealth)
- Goes Barefoot (+2 to Stealth)
- Sneakers (+1 to Athletics)
- Big Muscles (+2 to Athletics)
- Dressed in Black (+1 to Intuition)
- Tarot Cards (+2 to Intuition)
- Shaved Head (+1 to Will)
- Goatee (men) or Hairy Legs (women) (+2 to Will)
- Very Quiet (+1 to Perception)
- Shifty Eyes (+2 to Perception)
- Silver Tongue (+1 to Allure)
- Sexy Clothing (+2 to Allure)
- If you want to make up your own costume, prop, or personality trait, you can. The above list is contains suggestions and inspiration. As long as you don’t go over 2 points for any one item and it fits the flavor you’re going for, you’re good.
If anyone has any suggestions for additions or changes, please speak up.
August 31, 2009 at 8:55 pm
Brennen,
Excellent idea. Be sure to check out the board game Betrayal at House on the Hill. Its rules book and multitude of cards will help you fill out some of the dark corners of what you’re going after.
best, eric
August 31, 2009 at 9:44 pm
I’ve been wanting that game for a long time. It was on sale for 50% off at a seasonal game/calendar store at the local mall. I didn’t have the cash. The next day, all their copies were gone.
September 1, 2009 at 2:12 pm
I was a bit surprised to see that a large tattoo added to Creativity. I was expecting it to add to Fighting or Allure or something.
A quick question: are you aiming for a serious supernatural investigation type of game, or are you intending to send up the genre and make it more Scooby Doo and tongue-in-cheek?
-Ash
September 1, 2009 at 11:20 pm
Yeah, I thought it might add to Fighting or Allure at first as well, but I don’t think only tough people have tattoos, and some (very silly) people find tattoos unattractive. Most of the people I know who have tattoos consider themselves creative types.
There’s lots of tiny stuff that’s a little broken and iffy, and I’m okay with that at this point. I want to get to the point where I can play a decent game with my wife and friends and handwave all the shit that doesn’t quite work. I don’t necessarily want to buff the details until I have the chassis finished.
I’m not going for an intense make-you-shit-your-pants game, but I’d like to have something that creates the kind of fiction you’d find in a 2.5 or 3 star haunted house flick. Maybe something Italian from the 1970s.
September 2, 2009 at 2:22 am
Maybe it’s a cultural thing then, ’cause most of the people I know who are creative don’t have tattoos, and the people with tattoos aren’t very creative. Naturally there are exceptions on both sides of the fence, but there doesn’t seem to be any link.
You could always split tattoos into two categories, one type for tough guys (say, a Crying Freeman style body-covering tattoo – boy would that hurt! You’d have to be tough!) and one for the creative (maybe a custom-made tattoo?)
Anyway as you rightly say it *is* only s minor point and not really a fault at all.
It’s a shame you didn’t make this game two years ago, there used to be a great little ramshackle church in the cemetery near me that would have made a great cover image. Sadly I think they tore it down a year ago.
-Ash
September 2, 2009 at 2:28 am
I hate when people tears stuff down that probably really needs to be torn down. I find a lot of beauty in dilapidation and decay, especially in the late afternoon.
I’ve been daydreaming about cover images today. There are two places in my neighborhood that would be cool. One is a dead tree that is creepy as hell, and the other is an antebellum mansion that the city moved into a field about a 1/2 mile away.
There’s also a “real” haunted house called Spring Villa, but it’s not as creepy as it should be. We have lots of old Southern Victorians that are in shambles.
September 2, 2009 at 2:32 am
There are tons of haunted locations near where I live, but most of ‘em don’t really look it :( There again I live in the UK. We’ve got castles, mansions and weird old houses coming out of our ears. One of my friends has an 18th century cottage in their back garden! Sadly it’s way too small, literally a single room, so that’s not much good either. The trick is finding a suitable building that you can photograph without also capturing a motorway or a block of flats or something.
September 2, 2009 at 1:03 am
[...] you mind doing the statistical part of Intruder creation? It’s here. Log in to [...]
September 2, 2009 at 11:30 am
[...] After you are finished, do this part. [...]
September 2, 2009 at 12:02 pm
Is each costume/prop worth one point?
September 2, 2009 at 12:07 pm
The costumes/props are worth as much as the bonus. For instance, you could have three +1 items or a +2 and a +1.
Feel free to create your own. Mechanically it doesn’t really matter, but I think basing your costume/props on the questionaire adds a lot of flavor.
I think you could easily make the “Striking Red Head” worth +2 to Allure.
Do you feel that 3 points is too few?
September 2, 2009 at 6:05 pm
What do you think about using a wiki to keep rules and characters separate from discussion? I could provide one if you want–don’t want to derail your community, though. Maybe just a separate thread?
September 2, 2009 at 7:29 pm
I’d do that except for all of the really great feedback I’ve been getting on my posts. I think the Game Chef RSS feed aggregator is awesome, and it’s brought some very sharp people to these parts.
I think I’m on the verge of organizing all of this mess into a document anyway. Hopefully, I can deliver a pdf playtest by the end of this weekend.