Grim Play Mechanics

[Toba]

Hey all,

I'm currently brain powering an extremely sick and twisted campaign idea. Heavy (very heavy) inspiriation for this game comes from the Grim Fairy Tales, so if you have read those, you know what it is I'm working with.

Now to the point: I am working on game mechanics. The game would be role heavy vs roll heavy, but undoubtedly there would still be some roll play. I would base it off of 3.5e mechanics, as that is the system I know best.

In context with how ****ed up the setting/plot will be at points, no class really fits into what I am trying for. So, I am looking for help finding something appealing for players.

Right now, my basic idea was use the Commoner template found on the SRD. My worry is that players would get bored with having no special features. However, my main criteria in the application process would be as follows:

Character Name:
Gender:
Appearance:
Dark Secret:
(Secret Text to me)
List something dark and troubling about your character that they hide. This secret should be graphic and horrifying, and serves as a severe flaw in your characters sanity. The more ****ed up the secret, the better the odds of acceptance.

Example:

 

Edgar's father always told him not to cry. If he cried, he was beaten, then chained in the cellar for a few days. Depending on the situation, he often went beyond this punishment to prove his point, to a point of obsession. Edgar once brought home a kitten, and when told he couldn't keep it, Edgar cried. His father beat him severely, and then chained him in the basement as per usual. However, in this case, he also pinned the kitten to the ground just out of the boys reach. He hadn't been there long before the rats came and slowly devoured the still living kitten, along with most of Edgar's sanity.

Edgar now lives in a shack on the edge of town. He appears normal to anyone in town, going about his daily work of shoe making as if nothing were amiss. However, any time he hears a child crying, he follows the child home, then returns in the night, seeking to punish the child for crying, exactly as he had been punished.

No one has tied the disappearance of the children to Edgar yet, but they would only have to look in his basement for all the evidence they need...

So, what I need is opinions on if I should allow classes from the PHB, or restrain all characters to a human commoner for the campaign. Would a human commoner be interesting enough to keep players in the game? Or would the lack of seldom used combat mechanics dissuade players from sticking around?

[ShadowcatX]

Honestly, I would never apply for this type of game. I like being able to craft my own character, mechanically as well as their personality. However, it does seem to appeal to a fair number of people. If you're ready to run, post an add in looking for players and see if people are interested. (You'll get a lot more views there than here.)

[chaosaccountant]

I think the problem may be that you're trying to play a dark, low-level, mysterious game in a system based on high-powered heroics. You're left with characters that aren't going to be mechanically very intresting, or even very different from each other, because you've stripped them of all their options.
Honestly, there are two good ways to go with this; you need either a system that is very light to non-existant, possbily entirely diceless; or you need a system like GURPS that's designed to deal with the differences between normal humans in great details, where getting hurt matters even if you do have hp left, and so on. 3.5 is a system for hitting things with other things and blowing stuff up with magic, with some other bits and peices tacked on; when how fast you run away is probably more important, you need a system that doesn't answer '30ft' for everyone.

[Toba]

Thanks for the feedback!

@ShadowcatX I'm still working on the details as far as character creation goes, thus my post here.

@Chaosaccountant I see your point. Which is what I was worried about, but you put it succinctly enough to make it a lot clearer. So then I will make classes. I suppose I can apply the template I am looking for to a standard D&D setting, and allow character classes.

Thanks again to both of you.

[chaosaccountant]

If you're going to use the 'standard DnD' idea, it would be worth looking up 'Heros of Horror'. Mechanics aside, it has alot of good advice about the tone and setting required for good horror in DnD.
You also don't need to throw open the gates completely to give people options, or do all the work yourself. I played a great game once where we were all NPC classes (the adept was given a couple of varient spell lists, to fill in for 'divine caster' and 'arcane caster'). Just giving the options of 'expert' or 'warrior' gives people a bit more variety and the ability to be either vaugely competent generally or quite good at one specific thing.

[Toba]

Yeah, I am very familiar with Heroes of Horror. One of my favorite books.

I have very little trouble setting a horrible and ghastly tone in my games. I am just trying to make sure the players understand their character will be markedly disturbed. Each player will have a dark secret, and I want to exploit it to twist their character. The overall tone of the game will be a constant bombardment of insanity.

Again, if you have read any of the Grimm Fairy Tales, it would paint a very clear picture of what I'm going for.

I like your idea of variant spell lists, but I think the standard will work. I will definitely be pulling spells for my monsters from Book of Vile Darkness as well, as that has some very graphic and dark spells.

Thanks again for your input.