News: There’s a horror video marathon on the RPPR Patreon Discord on Sunday October 30, starting at 3 pm CDT! Sign up for the RPPR Newsletter and get a FREE Monster PDF!

Synopsis: After watching the first 7 Saw movies in the last week, I realized that game design comes up in a lot in horror films. I got Chris and Aaron to talk about the franchise and other horror movies that intersect with game design topics. We mention Phantasm, Cube, Circle, Tremors, and a lot of other movies. A fun discussion just in time for the spookiest month of the year!

Shout Outs

  • Saloum: An African horror thriller film currently on Shudder. Beautiful, intriguing, and unforgettable
  • Scorn: A horror adventure video game with a biomechanical aesthetic.
  • Three Thousand Years of Longing: A fantasy film about a writer and a genie, from director George Miller
  • Forgive Me Father: A Lovecraftian FPS with an old school design. Mow down hordes of cultists with a tommy gun. What’s not to love?
  • Shining the Holy Ark: A Sega Saturn RPG with some unique features.
  • Happy Endings: An autobiography of Bella Green, a comedian and sex worker.
  • Disney Dreamlight Valley: Animal Crossing but with Disney characters.
  • Floodlight: A drum and bass album where all proceeds go to disaster relief for flooding in Pakistan.
  • Quantum Leap: It’s a reboot of the 1980s show.

Music: Floodlight DnB Aid for Flooding in Pakistan

dossier-coverDracula is not a novel. It’s the censored version of Bram Stoker’s after-action report of the failed British Intelligence attempt to recruit a vampire in 1894. Kenneth Hite has restored the deleted sections, inserting annotations and clues left by three generations of MI6 analysts. This is Dracula Unredacted.

Follow those clues to The Director’s Handbook, containing hundreds of encounters: shady NPCs, dangerous locations, conspiratorial nodes, and mysterious objects. Together they comprise The Dracula Dossier — an epic improvised, collaborative campaign for Night’s Black Agents, our award-winning vampire spy thriller RPG. The mission: Hunt and kill Dracula now, once and for all, before Britain falls to him forever.

I interviewed Kenneth Hite about the creation of the Dossier, advice on running it, and other topics. It’s coming to stores this week and the PDF is already out! Check out the free resources available for running Dracula Dossier.

SHE-SAID-SWITCH-TO-OPTICSSponsor: Arc Dream is sponsoring this panel. Check out the Delta Green Kickstarter. New reward levels have been released so backers can get everything in print and PDF.

Synopsis: Horror gaming can go beyond Lovecraft and tentacles. Sometimes the most frightening moments in RPGs can come from obscure references and mundane moments. Surprise your players from a new direction! The panel will include Caleb Stokes (No Soul Left Behind, No Security), Ross Payton (Base Raiders, Zombies of the World), John Kennedy (Demonworld), and Jack Graham (Eclipse Phase). The title “Scary Parrots” refers to an RPPR game in which the players completely forgot about the plot and focused on a parrot THAT COULD NOT BE. Rather than dismiss the moment as a one-off, this panel will explore the unexpected places that the GM can exploit for terror. Between other writers of The Weird, discoveries in neuroscience, and philosophical thought experiments, this panel will provide a ton of original plot hooks and little disquieting scares to throw at your players.