The Culture: The Braunstein In The Woods

Y'know, now that Spooky Day 2024 is over, I have to think about something aloud.

That something is Le Slasher Horror Scenario. Try as games like All Flesh Must Be Eaten (et. al.) try, it should not be surprising that videogames definitely do the most playable scenarios better than Tabletop such that it is the videogame that successfully named and labelled it: Survival Horror.

"But why?"

Because Survival Horror is everything that the Cargo Cult of Conventional Play says that Tabletop Adventure Games are, and videogames are superior to tabletop versions in every single way possible- especially as commercial products. Not only that, but until the Bros came along they actually had a superior understanding of how to make it better.

That's right, it was the videogame versions that figured out how to make Playing The Monster (i.e. handing off a hostile faction to another player) work first.

If there is anything new for the Bros to tackle, it is in how to do the Real Hobby model of play work for horror. The one-session Braunstein scenario is, for all intents and purposes, a tabletop precursor to the asymmetrical model that Dead By Daylight established in videogames, so while that is necessary it is not sufficient.

No, we need to make the entire model work and for that we need to figure out Faction Play on a strategic level and make it interaction with Session Play on the tactical. While I can point you to Chill and others like it (e.g. Delta Green), I again must say that another medium already has this figured out.

The difference is that, in the Real Hobby model, there are multiple hostile Factions and room for individual characters to act.

The problem? If you adhere to Conventional Play norms, there is no way in Hell you'll get a better play experience than just playing XCom or others like it. (Or, for those more into the Zombie Apocalypse thing, games like How To Survive.) You need the strict timekeeping and Faction Play interweaving with and directly affecting adventuring scenario play to get the desired results.

Which means that Le Horror Campaign cannot be one endless parade of hapless Normies bumbling into monsters and crazy people because you have players playing the monsters and Plot Armor does not apply (which is why, despite itself, The Cabin the Woods is a fantastic meta-commentary about Horror as well as the basis for a fantastic horror campaign).

I'm thinking aloud here. I'm certain that others may be quite different in their perspective, but given where we are now this question yet remains.