Caught up by the desire to play a little wacky horror roleplaying in the middle of the week, I got a few folks together, pulled out the pocket-sized campfire horror game Dead of Night, and we had ourselves some fun.
The players:
* Jay, in town from New York for the next few months — catch his part in Pride and Prejudice next month at the Denver Performing Arts Center.
* Meera the Fierce
* Randy
The Concept:
* It is 1985
* You are in High School
* Heathers and Pretty in Pink meets Shawn of the Dead
The Main NPCS:
* Meridith, the Homecoming Queen
* Troy, the “captain awesome”, knows-everyones-name, cool but cocky quarterback (played by James Marsden)
* Rick “the Hickey” – head linebacker, bully (played by Jake Busey)
* Sarah – salutatorian, on the field hockey varsity team, pretty, popular, and rumored to be pregnant (I said Julia Stiles was playing this part, but I was actually thinking of Erika Christensen. Huh.)
* Kinney(, Melvin) – an angry young man who’s been threatening to burn down the school since sixth grade
* Bender – the stoner dude
My constraints for character creation:
* Tell me why you’re NOT going to the Homecoming Dance
* Tell me about some kind of relationship you have with at least two of the NPCs above
Here’s what we got:
* Meera: Alice (“don’t call me Allison”) – the smart, acidic, Scary Goth Chick. Sophomore. She’s Troy’s little sister and dated Kinney in Junior High until he got “too intense”. She’s not at the homecoming dance because… c’mon, look at her. Look at THEM — it’s obvious.
* Jay: Chris – the slightly stoned, visionary singer/guitarist/songwriter of Beefcake Express (not the band’s actual name, which I can’t remember, but it was close to that). Bender is the bass player, and Kinney is the drummer. In play, we also discovered he had a one-night ‘thing’ with the homecoming queen, and he still has a thing for her. He’s a Junior. He’s not at the homecoming dance because the class officers selected a clearly inferior cover band to play at the dance.
* Randy: Jason – the rebellion-through-kleptomania kid. He’s a sophomore, and has a crush on Sarah. Rick the Hickey has selected him as a particular target for harassment, but Jason returns the favor by routinely stealing Rick’s stuff. ((He really doesn’t like Rick because he dated Sarah for a little while last year.)) He’s not at the dance because he didn’t have the guts to ask Sarah (who, because of her personal drama, is also not going). Also, as we find out with the first in-character line in the game, Jason always plays halflings.
What are they all doing during the Homecoming dance?
* They’re in the basement at Alice’s house, playing Call of Cthulu. Alice is GMing. Jason is playing a short british man.
Quote and other wackiness after the cut.
“Kinney’s an asshole, man… and a mediocre drummer.” Chris, re: Angry Melvin Kinney. Clearly, the harshest judgement Chris could lay on another member of the band.
“He used to play in our games, until we got sick of him just trying to kill EVERYONE we met.” – Meera, re: Angry Melvin Kinney
“He’s living for the day they invent DOOM.” — Randy
“Hey, are you okay?” — Troy the Awesome to Jason, after Rick the Hickey gives him a spinning atomic wedgie in front of the whole school
“Always glad to help the Hitler Youth get their rocks off. It seems to be my place in life.” – Jason
“I borrow my mom’s car.” — Jay
“A gremlin?” — GM
“We have a Hornet – we couldn’t afford a Gremlin.” A little bit of Chris’ backstory.
“I don’t swerve for cheerleaders.” – Alice
“Just go… haven’t you done enough?” Jolene, of the Queen’s Court to Chris the Gallant but Clueless.
“He [Jason] immediately thought ‘Nazgul’ when he was surprised. You, however, thought ‘cat fight.'” –
Doyce to Jay
“You are assaulted by a whirling CYCLONE of…taffeta.” – Doyce to Meera, when Alice is attacked by the Queen’s Court after dousing them in punch
“We don’t negotiate with terrorists… or zombies.” – Jay
“This would be a dignified time for your bowels to release,” – Jay, helpfully, to Randy, as a zombie redneck attacks.
“Thanks Chris… Alice, you should be nice to him with the… monster… polyp… game-thing.” – Troy, who was bit by the redneck zombie, then given everclear
“I will eviscerate you later.” — Alice to Chris.
“I’m going to head toward the wet…slurping. ‘Jason, man, if you don’t put Jimmy Dean away before I get around the corner, I will be totally put out.'” – Chris
“The wet slurping is Rick the Hickey, going for his namesake.” — Doyce
“It’s Frodo with the underwear. [to Randy] Sorry man, the nickname stuck.” — Doyce
“If you end up ending the scene without pants AGAIN, it would be SO awesome.” — Jay, making more helfful suggestions for Jason.
“Can we get back to the thing, the stuff, the vengeance?” – Doyce, as AMK.
“You can’t … you always have to HELP everyone, and you always want to be the hero, and you’re just… Man… Halflings can’t even BE Paladins!” – Angry Melvin Kinney, ranting at Jason
“They can’t get in unless they’re invited. Actually, they can’t get in unless someone lets them in – the gym doors are locked.” – Doyce riffing off the undead thing.
“Were you in an accident? Did you wreck the car?” – Alice’s dad
“I was not in an accident and the car was not wrecked.” — Alice
[screech] [CRASH!] from down the street
“Well, it might be…now.” — Alice
And that’s kind of as far as we got. We only played a few hours, but the Survival Points are starting to dwindle for a few folks, and we packed in a LOT (and I mean a LOT) of Geeky 1980’s Gamer Nostalgia.
Quote of the night:
“MmmmmAN we’re nerds. I can’t even SEE cool from where we’re sitting right now.” – Jay
Good times.
Rick the Hickey is a zombie now, stuck outside the gym. Chris is holding the doors closed on the inside, and Jason is right behind Rick on the OUTSIDE. Ooops. Alice took Troy home to talk to Dad about the bite he got, but Troy wandered off with the car, and might have just wrecked it.
We play again in a few weeks. 🙂