Shock Radio – Part 2

“Hoookay,” Mike said.  “That’s bizarre.”

The door opened and three people in their late teens filed in, lead by Sandy Rey, KROK’s intern.  “Say hello to our contest winners, and your guests for the night.”

In the lead was a goth girl, with too much eye makeup and too little skin tone.  Behind her was a shaggy musician, cheap red Fender guitar strapped to his back.  The last was a hauty-looking girl, with long black hair and an air of authority.

“Hey, everybody, welcome,” Frankie said.  “Drop your stuff, and grab a chair and headphones, we’re going live in a couple of minutes.  When we go to the first song set, I’ll show you where you’ll be spending the rest of your evening…”

Shock Radio – Part 1

The opening episode of the Horror experiment using Blood and Fear Itself.

A blonde figure appears at the far end of the brightly lit, otherwise deserted hallway.  She’s in jeans, and patterned halter, and carrying something in her left hand.  As she gets closer it becomes clear that her shirt isn’t patterned, but rather blood splattered, along with her jeans and tattooed arms.  She takes a puff on a cigarette burned low in the fingers of her right hand, in her left she holds a bloody machete.

It’s the DJ, Frankie Shock.

Her hair is more wild than usual, her eyes haunted and hollow.  Blowing smoke she drops the butt on the tiled floor in the hallway and enters the makeshift booth she and Mike had put together earlier…

Frankie III

Carrying on from last time, today we’ll present Ms Shock as produced for Fear Itself.

Again too, some intro notes.  I used the standard character creation rules for the system to put Frankie together here.  The first thing I noticed is that it’s a very “stats lite” system.  The first thing you do is come up with a concept and a “role”, but neither directly effects the creation process other than to help focus the character being created.

Characters have no traits per se either.  They’re a collection of skills and abilities, which are actually point pools (more on these pools later).  These are basically the only numerical traits that are associated with your Fear Itself character.

I also find the skill system somewhat anemic.  Characters get 60 points to spend in the dice pools for creation, and I honestly had a tough time finding enough skills to put dice into.  There are no “fluff” skills, it’s all “infiltration” and “filch” and “mechanics”, no “entertainment” or “sexual technique” here!

Now about those point pools.

Frankie Shock (revisited)

I’ve decided that I really like Frankie Shock, the DJ I created for Don’t Rest Your Head.  She’s vaguely based on my favorite DJ on the station I listen to here in Ottawa, not that I know anything about the real DJ’s life but I combine what I hear with imagination, and so I get Frankie!

I’ve recreated Frankie in two different rule sets: Blood from PostMortem Studios, and Fear Itself, from Pelgrane Press.  I want to try an experiment with these two characters.  Both rule sets are for modern horror stories, but the approaches are very different.  Blood is just that, bloody!  It’s for John Carpenter, hack and slash, run from the killer type horror.  Fear Itself on the other hand, is more aimed toward investigative horror, Blair Witch and that sort of story (it is a GUMSHOE system game after all).

So my experiment is this, create the same character in both systems and then play out a game and see how the systems handle various elements.

The Gold Tower

Thanks to the RPGNow new year’s sale, I was able to pick up Little Fears, The Nightmare Edition for only $11 ($10.95 Cdn).  I like the game and the way it looks and I was inspired with a setting for getting these kids together.  So welcome to the Gold Tower.

Welcome home…to the Gold Tower

The Gold Tower is a luxury condo in midtown where the kids and their families all live.  It’s built out of an old Victorian mansion, now with a multi-story building attached to the back of it and grown on top.  The Victorian was one of the original homes in the city and rather than tear it down, the Gold Group of companies decided to incorporate it in their new design for a 40 story luxury condominium.  The old house is now the lobby entryway primarily, but there is also a library, and a kids’ play room.  The building boasts a dining room/banquet hall which is rentable by residents for any special parties they may be throwing.  In addition a new wing has been built to house the pool/gym area, which is accessible off the lobby, past the library.

Frankie Shock

A new character for Don’t Rest Your Head

My Name Is . . .Francesca Shockley (Frankie Shock)

And I Am . . .a radio DJ for KROQ

What’s been keeping you awake?
My mother.  She’s nuts…No I mean really nuts.  Locked up nuts.  How am I going to take care of her?  How can I afford all this?  I mean someone’s got to get her care, get her looked after.  My kid sister’s useless.  Sure she’s a hot shot lawyer down in Pensicola (Annabella Kingsman, look her up) but like she’d ever haul her butt back here to help out and take care of our mom.  So there’s me.  Just me.

What’s on the surface?
Hippie dippy DJ girl.  I look like a stoned out rock groupie or something.  Yeah, I guess these tattoo sleeves don’t help but hey, they’re cool right?  And even though I’m a girl it makes me look like I could stomp your nuts into oblivion if you look at me sideways.  I like that.

What lies beneath?
I am the biggest softie ever.  I mean ever!  I’d give you the shirt off my back even if I didn’t have a shirt.  Nobody gets that.

What’s your path?
I want my mom back.  I want a family.  I want to feel like I did when I was seven, and safe, and protected…

What just happened to you?
Finished another 10 to 2am slot at the station, stopped by Tom’s on the way to my crapbox apartment and shot down too much whiskey while smoking too many smokes.  While walking back to my place (can’t afford a car), I saw this little girl…I swear she was wearing what was my uniform when I was seven, this short and t-shirt set with sneakers…anyway, she was talking to this tall dude.  Scary looking guy, musta been seven feet tall!  And he had like a beak or something!  She handed him a glass thing, like a snow globe, and asked “is this what you wanted?”

He made this evil snicker sound and took it.  I shouted to leave her alone, give it back, but he just snickered more and walked away.  I followed him, not really wanting to catch up but wanting to see where he went.  We went into the park as the fog started rolling in, and I lost him.  All I could hear was his umbrella tapping.  And now I’m in this graveyard, that I’m certain I never even knew was in my neighbourhood.

So now what?

Discipline 3
Madness 0
Exhaustion 0
Fight 2 Flight 1

Exhaustion Talent: Communication – I can speak with and understand any language (even though I only know english, and my high school teacher said I didn’t even know that very well)

Madness Talent: The power of words – Whatever I say happens.  Not like the Paper Boys, but like that old D&D spell “power word – kill”.  I say a word or two of command, and it happens, no matter what it is I say.

Building a character for DRYH is that easy.  Rules lite?  Yeah, kinda.  For characters anyway.  Dicing for stuff?  That’s another matter entirely…

Blood! for fun

Wanted to stick in a review of a set of rules I picked up before Christmas.

Blood, from Postmortem Studios, is a modern day horror game for stories along the lines of Nightmare on Elm Street, Friday the 13th and Scream.  Now, I love horror movies like these ones.  I remember the original Friday the 13th, and those wonderful John Carpenter films like The Fog and Prince of Darkness…even They Live.  So the opportunity to play those stories out was a big draw for me when I learned of Blood.  So I picked up the PDF.

Lovecraftian sit-coms!

I was flipping through my Call of Cthulhu rules the other day, while listening to “The Shadow Out of Tim” by the Darkest of the Hillside Thickets (highly recommended btw) when I was somehow struck by the idea of a sit-com idea, informed by HP’s writing.  Then after the first, came another…and another!  And, of course, my first thought was: how can I play this as an RPG??

With Royal Sanction – Part 2

Following up on what Roberto had told her, Elisha left Rome and headed for her home town, Hong Kong.  It hadn’t been long since last she’d visited, and she still had both friends and relatives here.  Usually Elisha would take the time to visit but this time was business, she had work to do.

Before leaving Rome she’d put in a request for information on the banker, Donna Giaccone.  The money aspect of the case seemed to be growing in importance all the time.  If it was important enough to cost Roberto his life, it was very important indeed. Which made the banker all the more interesting to Elisha.  She received her response just before boarding the flight from Rome.

With Royal Sanction – Part 1

Back in London, Elisha was called to M’s office. She passed through the outer office, giving Moneypenny a quick hello before entering through the leather door airlock into the inner sanctum. Closing the doors behind her, she knew M would switch on the light above the door; the one that meant he was not to be disturbed.

Inside, M looked up from the folder he was reading as Elisha entered.

“Ah, 001, good.” He closed the file and pushed it aside. “Have a seat.”