Groundhog Day

[Nifft]

I've been thinking about a "temporal disaster" scenario, probably set in modern or near-future times. Horrific entities from beyond the outer darkness show up, and we humans nuke them with our most powerful weapon -- a trans-thermic tachyon bomb. The time stream ruptures; causality is severely irritated.

The basic idea would be that the PCs navigate a horror scenario (a la Call of Cthulhu) with lots of easy deaths, but the party can "reset" at any time -- even after dying -- and they remember everything that happened in previous iterations. Thus, they can try risky things without too much fear.

The catch? They remember everything. Their Sanity score does not get reset.

So: practical considerations.

- Who should the PCs be? Soldiers, scientists, medics & military occultists seem to be four obvious roles -- who else?

- Where should the PCs be when play starts? This should be near a ton of non-obvious resources, since they'll be repeating their "setup" work several times.

- What's the best system for this kind of thing? Obviously we need a Sanity score, but everything else is open.

- Encounters... should have a TON of tactical options, since I expect the PCs to play some of them many times.

- How many encounters? A few encounters, but each one terribly hard, sounds good to me -- the fun part will be figuring out how to solve each one.

Anyway. Thoughs?

Thanks, -- N

 

[Alisair Longreach]

Where should the PCs start? They should start their day waking up in their beds, just like in the movie. Waking up to the same pop song on the radio every morning should get really annoying really fast. Torment your PCs.

For the encounters, place them on a map, make a timeline, plot the consequences if they are not dealt with, place clues and resources. Figure out what triggers the end of the scenario.

Remember you are doing the Ground Hog Day so when the last PC dies or falls asleep, they wake up again at 6:01 with Spice Girls "Wannabe" blaring on the radio.

As for system you should use whatever you are comfortable with for modern day roleplaying.
Good systems I know of are D20 Modern, Call of Cthulhu D20, Spycraft, Alternity as they require very few tweaks to adapt to a modern day setting with normal humans without access to superscience or magic.

 

[Ry]

This sounds like how Yog Sothoth would get its cosmic jollies

 

[SuStel]

Having been subjected to a Groundhog Day style adventure myself, I can only express my passionate dislike for this shtick.

 

[Ry]

Having been subjected to a Groundhog Day style adventure myself, I can only express my passionate dislike for this shtick.

Was it a game about dungeons and /or dragons? I think it would work in the context of a "the world will end before dinnertime" Call of Cthulhu thing, but not as a long arc, and certainly not in D&D.

 

[LostSoul]

I would set up the temporal thing as a project the PCs have signed up for - just in case their plans fail. So you'd have anyone who might be around during the project, because it doesn't work as expected...

It's the campaign premise, so you need buy-in.

 

[Ry]

If not in-game I would suggest saying out of game "Hey, I have a cool idea for a Call of Cthulhu game in a small modern setting with some time travel. Are you guys down with that?"

 

[Three_Haligonians]

Sounds like a neat idea!

One problem that comes to my mind is that.. if on any given run through of the day.. Player A dies at say... 11:52am. That player is out until all the other players die.. or until the "reset" time.. whatever that is..

The point is that, that one player who buys it early in the day (by stupid plan, mistake, accident, suicide by toaster in the tub.. whatever..) has to wait for everyone else.

Just saying it's something you should plan for.. with multiple characters.. or what have you..

J from Three Haligonians

 

[Baron Opal]

Assaulting a multi-level building might be a good idea, it has multiple means of entrance. After they get eaten after entering the front door and then shot down trying to land the helicopter on the roof they can try the access tunnel from the neighboring government building.

Since some characters will die before others, and it's a horror game that resets some thought might be given to the afterlife. Is there some barrier between their souls and Heaven, or is there simply a cessation of consiousness after death? If this is a CoC -style game mere oblivion may be too comforting.

Another character concept is a shmuck caught in the temporal blast. They may be a clerk from Manpower who suddenly can ... do time stuff. Imagination fails me at the moment.

 

[Nifft]

[...] should get really annoying really fast. Torment your PCs.

No, that's a terrible idea. I want them to have fun.

@ SuStel: If you could be specific in what parts / details / aspects you hated, that might be helpful. Thanks in advance.

@ Three_Haligonians: The Spell of Linked Protection which gets cast on the party will cause them to re-set 1 minute after any one of them dies. That gives enough time for a heroic sacrifice ending, but (hopefully) not enough for the dead guy(s) to get bored.

@ Baron Opal: Multi-level building would be okay if they started inside -- or if it were a space station, so going outside was possible but very hazardous.

- - -

Someone elsewhere brought up the opening scene of Hellboy, and that seemed like a perfect fit. Allied assault forces could include a very broad range of interesting characters, and of course everyone loves shooting Nazis. The PCs would start in a hidden location with a map of the surrounding area, a pile of weapons and equipment, and a deadline: the ritual will be completed in 1 hour. Exposition, background, NPCs chat, NPC casts protection spell, and then everything goes horribly wrong. A wave of horrific energy passes over the group, and all the NPCs fall down, then slowly shamble to their feet. Roll for initiative: you're surrounded by zombies.

- - -

One thing CoC doesn't detail: how much Sanity should death cost? There should be a range -- decapitation would cost less, being burned alive would cost a lot.

Each death could also impose a phobia.

More ideas? Thanks, -- N